MEPDE 


JL 1215 
1917 
. R53 
Copy 2 


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Mexican Review 



A • JOURNAL • DEVOTED-TO 
THE •ENLIGHTENMENT• OF -THE 
AMERICAN • PEOPLE* IN -RESPECT 
tc-the -HOPES-AMBITIONS 

beneficent • intentions • and 

ACCOMPLISHMENTS • OF -THE 
CONSTITUTIONALIST- government 
-OF-THE- 

REPUBLIOof-MEXICO 



VOL. I 


WASHINGTON, D. C, MARCH, 1917 


NO. 6 



€qimi/Rights FOR ftbvl 
SpGCIAI/PRIVIMSGGS FORflOINe! 


Ten Cents the Copy 

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2 


THE MEXICAN REVIEW , /} S$ 

Political Constitution of the United States of Mexico 



Signed January 31, 1917, and Promulgated February 3, 1917 
(Translated for Tfhe Mexican Review hyi 7/. N. Branch) 

(ALL RIGHTS RESERVED) * 


TITLE I 

CHAPTER I 

OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN 

Article i—Every person in the United 
States of Mexico shall enjoy all rights pre¬ 
scribed by this Constitution; these rights 
shall neither be abridged nor suspended ex¬ 
cept in such cases and under such condi¬ 
tions as herein provided. 

Art. 2—Slavery is forbidden in the United 
States of Mexico. Slaves who set foot upon 
the national territory shall by this very 
act recover their freedom and enjoy the 
protection of the law. 

Art. 3—Instruction is free; that given in 
public institutions of learning shall be non¬ 
sectarian. Primary instruction, whether 
higher or lower, given in private institu¬ 
tions shall likewise be non-sectarian. 

No religious corporation nor minister of 
any religious creed shall be permitted to 
establish or direct schools of primary in¬ 
struction. 

Private primary schools may be estab¬ 
lished only subject to official supervision. 

Primary instruction in public institutions 
shall be free. 

Art. 4—No person shall be prevented 
from engaging in any profession, industrial 
or commercial pursuit or occupation which 
he may deem fit, provided it be lawful. The 
exercise of this liberty may only be forbid¬ 
den by judicial order when the rights of third 
persons are infringed, or by executive order, 
issued under the conditions prescribed by 
law, when the rights of society are affected. 
No one shall be deprived of the fruit of his 
labor except by judicial decree. 

Each State shall determine by law what 
professions shall require licenses, the req¬ 
uisites to be complied with in obtaining the 
same, and the authorities empowered to 
issue them. 

Art. 5 ^-No one shall be compelled to 
render personal services without just com¬ 
pensation and without his full consent, ex¬ 
cepting labor imposed as a punishment by 
judicial decree, which shall conform to the 
provisions of subdivisions I and II of 
Article 123. 

Only the following public services shall be 
obligatory, subject to the conditions set 
forth in the respective laws: military ser¬ 
vice, jury service, service in municipal and 
other public elective office, whether this 
election be direct or indirect, and service 
in connection with elections which shall be 
obligatory and without compensation. 

The State shall not permit any contract, 
covenant or agreement to be carried out 
having for its object the abridgment, loss 
or irrevocable sacrifice of the liberty of man, 
whether by reason of labor, education or 
religious vows. The law, therefore, does 
not recognize the establishment of monastic 
orders, of whatever denomination, or for 
whatever purpose contemplated. 


Nor shall any person legally agre e to his 
own proscription or exile, or to the^ tempo¬ 
rary or permanent renunciation of thr^ exer¬ 
cise of any profession or industrial or'^com¬ 
mercial pursuit. \ 

A contract for labor shall only be bidd¬ 
ing to render the services agreed upon f<i?r 
the time fixed by law and shall not exceed’ 
one year to the prejudice of the party ren¬ 
dering the service; nor shall it in any case 
whatsoever embrace the waiver, loss or 
abridgment of any political or civil right. 

In the event of a breach of such contract 
on the part of the party pledging himself to 
render the service, the said party shall only 
be liable civilly for damages arising from 
such breach, and in no event shall coercion 
against his person be employed. 

Art. 6—The expression of ideas shall not 
be the subject of any judicial or executive 
investigation, unless it offend good morals, 
impair the rights of third parties, incite 
to crime or cause a breach of the peace. 

Art. 7—Freedom of writing and publish¬ 
ing writings on any subject is inviolable. 
No law or authority shall have the right to 
establish censorship, require bond from au¬ 
thors or printers, or restrict the liberty of 
the press, which shall be limited only by the 
respect due to private life, morals and pub¬ 
lic peace. Under no circumstances shall a 
printing press be sequestrated as the corpus 
delicti. 

The organic laws shall prescribe what¬ 
ever provisions may be necessary to pre¬ 
vent the imprisonment^ under pretext of a 
denunciation of offenses of the press, of the 
vendors, newsboys, distributors, workmen 
and other employees of the establishment 
publishing the writing denounced, unless 
their responsibility be previously estab¬ 
lished. 

Art. 8—Public officials and employees 
shall respect the exercise of the right of 
petition, provided it be in writing and in 
a peaceful and respectful manner; but this 
right may be exercised in political matters 
solely by citizens. 

To every petition there shall be given an 
answer in writing by the official to whom it 
may be addressed, and said official shall be 
bound to inform the petitioner of the de¬ 
cision taken within a brief period. 

Art. 9—The right peaceably to assemble or 
to come together for any lawful purpose 
shall not be abridged; but only citizens shall 
be permitted to do so in order to take part 
in the political affairs of the country. No 
armed assembly shall have the right to 
deliberate. 

No meeting or assembly shall be deemed 
unlawful, nor may it be dissolved, which 
shall have for its purpose the petitioning of 
any authority or the presentation of any 
protest against any act, provided no insults 
are proffered against the said authority, nor 


violence resorted to, nor threats used to in¬ 
timidate or to compel the said authority 
to render a favorable decision. 

Art. 10—The inhabitants of the United 
States of Mexico are entitled to have arms 
of any kind in their possession for their 
protection and legitimate defense, excepting 
such as are expressly prohibited by law and 
‘.such as the nation may reserve for the ex¬ 
clusive use of the army, navy and national 
guk’rd; but they shall not bear such arms 
witH,in inhabited places except subject to 
the j^'lice regulations thereof. 

Art IV —Every man has the right to enter 
and lea\A,e the Republic, to travel through its 
territory and change his residence without 
necessity <>f a letter of security, passport, 
safe conduct or any other similar require¬ 
ment. The t xercise of this right shall be 
subordinated t(' the powers of the judiciary, 
in the event of vivil or criminal responsibil¬ 
ity, and to those of the executive insofar 
as relates to the limitation imposed by law 
in regard to emigration, immigration, and 
the public health 01 th* 1 country, or in re¬ 
gard to undesirable foreigners resident in 
the country. 

Art. 12—No titles of nobility, prerogatives 
or hereditary honors snail be granted in the 
United States of Mex : co, nor shall any 
effect be given to those granted by other 
countries. 

Art. 13—No one shall be tried according 
to special laws or by special tribunals. No 
person or corporation shall have privileges 
or enjoy emoluments which ? t re not in com¬ 
pensation for public services ?nd established 
by law. Military jurisdiction : hall be recog¬ 
nized for the trial of criminal cases having 
direct connection with militar discipline: 
but the military tribunals shal- in no case 
and for no reason extend their jurisdiction 
over persons not belonging to the army. 
Whenever a civilian shall be implicated in 
any military crime or offense, the' cause 
shall be heard by the corresponding civil 
authorities. 

Art. 14—No law shall be given retroac¬ 
tive effect to the injury of any person what¬ 
soever. 

No person shall be deprived of life, 
liberty, property, possessions or rights with¬ 
out due process of law instituted before a 
duly created court, in which the essential 
elements of procedure are observed and in 
accordance with previously existing laws. 

In criminal cases no penalty shall be im¬ 
posed by mere analogy or even by a priori 
evidence, but the penalty shall be decreed 
by a law in every respect applicable to the 
crime in question. 

In civil suits the final judgment shall be 
according to the letter or the juridical inter¬ 
pretation of the law; in the absence of the 


THE MEXICAN REVIEW 


3 


^ iatier the general legal principles shall 
govern. 

Art. 15—No treaty shall be made for the 
^ extradition of political offenders, or of of- 
V. fenders of the common class, who have been 
' slaves in the country where the offense was 
^ committed. Nor shall any agreement or 
treaty be entered into which abridges or 
modifies the guarantees and rights which 
this Constitution grants to the individual 
and to the citizen. 

Art. 16—No one shall be molested in his 


person, family, domicile, papers or posses¬ 
sions except by virtue of an order in writ¬ 
ing of the competent authority setting forth 
the legal ground and justification for the 
action taken. No order of arrest or deten¬ 
tion shall be issued against any person other 
than by competent judicial authority, nor 
unless preceded by a charge, accusation or 
complaint for a specific offense punishable 
by imprisonment, supported by an affidavit 
of a credible party or by such other evi¬ 
dence as shall make the guilt of the accused 
probable; in cases in flagrante delicto any 
person may arrest the offender and his ac¬ 
complices, placing them without delay at 
the disposition of the nearest authorities. 
Only in urgent cases instituted by the public 
attorney without previous complaint or in¬ 
dictment gnd when there is no judicial au¬ 
thority available may the administrative au¬ 
thorities, on their strictest accountability, 
order the detention of the accused, placing 
him at the disposition of the judicial au¬ 
thorities. Every search warrant, which may 
only be issued by the judicial authority and 
which must be in writing shall specify the 
place to be searched, the person or persons 
to be arrested and the objects sought to 
which the proceeding shall be strictly lim¬ 
ited; at the conclusion of which a detailed 
written statement shall be drawn up in the 
presence of two witnesses proposed by the 
occupant of the place to be searched or in 
"his absence or refusal by the official mak¬ 
ing the search. 

Administrative officials may enter private 
houses solely for the purpose of determin¬ 
ing that the sanitary and police regulations 
have been complied with; they may like¬ 
wise demand the exhibition of books and 
-documents necessary to prove that the fiscal 
regulations have been obeyed, subject to the 
respective laws and to the formalities pre¬ 
scribed for cases of search. 

Art. 17—No one shall be imprisoned for 
<lebts of a purely civil character. No one 
shall take the law into his own hands, nor 
resort to violence in the enforcement of his 
rights. The courts shall be open for the ad¬ 
ministration of justice at such times and 
under such conditions as the law may estab¬ 
lish; their services shall be gratuitous and 
all judicial costs are accordingly prohibited. 

Art. 18—Detention shall be inflicted only 
for offenses meriting corporal punishment. 
The place of detention shall be different and 
completely separated from that set apart 
for the serving of sentences. 

The Federal and State Governments shall 
organize in their respective territories the 


penal system—penal colonies or prisons— 
cn the basis of labor as a means of regener¬ 
ation. 

Art. 19—No detention shall exceed three 
days except for reasons specified by the 
formal order of commitment, which shall 
set forth the offense charged, the substance 
thereof, the time, place and circumstances 
of its commission, and the facts disclosed 
in the preliminary examination. The said 
facts must always be sufficient to establish 
the corpus delicti and the probable guilt of 
the accused. All authorities ordering any 
detention or consenting thereto, as well as 
all agents, subordinates, wardens or jailers, 
executing the same, shall be liable for any 
breach of this provision. 

The trial shall take place only for the 
offense or offenses set forth in the formal 
order of commitment. If it shall develop in 
the course of trial that another offense dif¬ 
ferent from that charged has been com¬ 
mitted, a separate accusation must be 
brought. This, however, shall not prevent 
the joinder of both causes of action, if 
deemed advisable. 

Any maltreatment during apprehension or 
confinement; any molestation inflicted with¬ 
out legal j ustification; any exaction or con¬ 
tribution levied in prison are abuses which 
the law shall correct and the authorities 
punish. 

Art. 20—In every criminal trial the ac¬ 
cused shall enjoy the following guarantees: 

I— He shall be set at liberty on demand 
and upon giving a bond up to ten thousand 
pesos, according to his status and the grav¬ 
ity of the offense charged, provided, how¬ 
ever, that the said offense shall not be 
punishable with more than five years’ im¬ 
prisonment; he shall be set at liberty with¬ 
out any further requisite than the placing 
of the stipulated sum at the disposal of the 
proper authorities or the giving of an- ade¬ 
quate mortgage bond or personal security. 

II— He may not be forced to be a wit¬ 
ness against himself; wherefore denial of 
access or other means looking towards this 
end is hereby strictly prohibited. 

III— He shall be publicly notified within 
forty-eight hours after being turned over to 
the judicial authorities of the name of his 
accuser and of the nature of and cause for 
the accusation, so that he may be familiar 
with the offense with which he is charged, 
may reply thereto and make his prelimin¬ 
ary statement. 

IV— He shall be confronted with the wit¬ 
nesses against him, who shall testify in his 
presence if they are to be found in the place 
where the trial is being held, so that he may 
cross-examine them in his defense. 

V— All witnesses which he shall offer 
shall be heard in his defense, as well as all 
evidence received, for which he shall be 
given such time as the law may prescribe; 
he shall furthermore be assisted in secur¬ 
ing the presence of any person or persons 
whose testimony he may desire, provided 
they are to be found at the place of .trial. 

VI— He shall be entitled to a public trial 
by a judge or jury of citizens who can read 


and write and are also citizens of the place 
and district where the offense shall have 
been committed, provided the penalty for 
such offense be greater than one year’s im¬ 
prisonment. The accused shall always be 
entitled to trial by jury for all offenses com¬ 
mitted by means of the press against the 
public peace or against the safety, domestic 
or foreign, of the Republic. 

VII— He shall be furnished with all in¬ 
formation of record needed for his defense. 

VIII— He shall be tried within four 
months if charged with an offense the maxi¬ 
mum penalty for which does not exceed 
two years’ imprisonment, and within one 
year if the maximum penalty be greater. 

IX— He shall be heard in his own de- 
f "nse, either personally or by counsel, or by 

as he may desire. In case he shall 
have no one to defend him, a list of official 
counsel shall be submitted to him in order 
that he may choose one or more to act in 
his defense. If the accused shall not desire 
to name any counsel for his defense, after 
having been called upon to do so at the 
time of his preliminary examination, the 
court shall appoint "Counsel to defend him. 
The accused may name his counsel immedi¬ 
ately on arrest and shall be entitled to have 
him present at every stage of the trial; but 
he will be bound to make him appear as 
often as required by the Court. 

X— In no event may imprisonment or de¬ 
tention be extended through failure to pay 
counsel fees or through any other pecuniary 
charge, by virtue of any civil liability or 
other similar cause. Nor shall detention 
be extended beyond the time set by law as 
the maximum for the offense charged. 

The period of detention shall be reckoned 
as a part of the final sentence. 

Art. 21—The imposition of all penalties 
is an exclusive attribute of the judiciary. 
The prosecution of offenses belongs to the 
public prosecutor and to the judicial police, 
who shall be under the immediate command 
and authority of the public prosecutor. The 
punishment of violations of municipal and 
police regulations belongs to the adminis¬ 
trative authorities, and shall consist only of 
a fine or of imprisonment not exceeding 
thirty-six hours. Should the offender fail 
to pay the fine this shall be substituted by 
the corresponding period of arrest, which 
shall in no case exceed fifteen days. 

Should the offender be a workman or 
unskilled laborer, he shall not be punished 
with a fine greater than the amount of his 
week’s wages or salary. 

Art 22—Punishments by mutilation and 
infamy, by branding, flogging, leafing with 
sticks, torture of any kind, excessive fines, 
confiscation of property and any other un¬ 
usual and excessive penalties, are prohibited. 

Attachment proceedings of the whole or 
part of the property of any person made 
under judicial authority to cover any civil 
liability arising out of the commission of 
any offense, or by reason of the imposition 
of any tax or fine, shall not be deemed a 
confiscation of property. 

Capital punishment is likewise forbid¬ 
den for all political offenses; in the case 


4 


THE MEXICAN REVIEW 


of offenses other than political it shall only be im¬ 
posed for high treason committed during a foreign 
war, parricide, murder with malice aforethought, 
arson, abduction, highway robbery, piracy, and grave 
military offenses. 

Art. 23—No criminal case shall have more than 
three instances. No one, whether acquitted or con¬ 
demned, shall be tried twice for the same offense. 
Verdicts of “not proven” are abolished. 

Art. 24—Every man is free to embrace the 
religion of his choice and to practice such cere¬ 
mony, devotions or observances of the respective 
creed, either in places of public worship or at home, 
provided they do not constitute an offense punishable > 
by law. 

Every religious act of public worship shall be per¬ 
formed strictly within the places of public worship, 
which shall be at all times under governmental super¬ 
vision. 

Art. 25—Correspondence sent through the mails is 
inviolable and shall be free from search. The vio¬ 
lation of this provision shall be punishable by law. 

Art. 26—No member of the army shall in time 
of peace be quartered in private dwellings, without 
the consent of the owner; nor shall any other exac¬ 
tion be demanded. In time of war the military may 
demand lodging, equipment, provisions and other 
assistance, in the manner provided by the correspond¬ 
ing martial law. 

Art. 27—The ownership of lands and waters within 
the limits of the national territory is vested origi¬ 
nally in the Nation, which has had and has the 
right to transmit title thereof to private persons, 
thereby constituting private property. 

Private property shall not be expropriated except 
for cause of public utility* and by means of indemni¬ 
fication. 

The Nation shall have at all times the right to 
impose on private property such limitations as the 
public interest may demand as well as the right to 
regulate the development of natural resources, which 
are susceptible of appropriation, in order to con¬ 
serve them and equitably to distribute the public 
wealth. For this purpose necessary measures shall 
be taken to divide large landed estates; to develop 
small landed holdings; to establish new centers of 
rural population with such lands and waters as may 
be indispensable to them; to encourage agriculture 
and to prevent the destruction of natural resources 
and to protect property from damage detrimental to 
society. Settlements, hamlets situated on private 
property and communes which lack lands or water 
or do not possess them in sufficient quantities for 
their needs shall have the right to be provided with 
them from the adjoining properties, always having 
due regard for small landed holdings. Wherefore, 
all grants of lands made up to the present time under 
the decree of January 6, 1915, are confirmed. Pri¬ 
vate property acquired for the said purposes shall 
be considered as taken for public use. In the Nation 
is vested direct ownership of all minerals or sub¬ 
stances which in veins, masses, or beds consti¬ 
tute deposits whose nature is different from the 
components of the land, such as minerals from which 
metals and metaloids used for industrial purposes 
are extracted; beds of precious stones, rock salt 
and salt lakes formed directly by marine waters, 
products derived from the decomposition of rocks, 
when their exploitation requires underground work; 
phosphates which may be used for fertilizers; solid 
mineral fuels; petroleum and all hydrocarbons—solid, 
liquid or gaseous. 

In the Nation is likewise vested the ownership of 
the waters of territorial seas to the extent and in 
the terms fixed by the law of nations; those of lakes 
and inlets of bays; those of interior lakes of natural 
formation which are directly connected with flowing 
waters; those of principal rivers or tributaries from 
the points at which their courses become perma¬ 
nently identifiable to their mouths, whether they flow 
to the sea or cross two or more States; those of 
intermittent streams which traverse two or more 
States in their main body; the waters of rivers, 
streams, or ravines, when they bound the national 
territory or that of the States; waters extracted from 

* While the term “public utility” may be somewhat 
misleading, it is felt that that of “public ^use” may 
be even more so. The same expression ("por causa 
de utilxdad publica”) is to be found in the 1857 Con¬ 
stitution, and has always been interpreted by the 
courts of Mexico in the sense of public interest, as 
in the case of land expropriated for the surface 
work of a mine, etc. H. N. B. 


mines; and the beds and banks of the lakes and 
streams hereinbefore mentioned, to the extent fixed 
by law. Any other stream of water not comprised 
within the foregoing enumeration shall be consid¬ 
ered as an integral part of the private property 
through which it flows; but the development of the 
waters when they pass from one landed property to 
another shall be considered of public utility and shall 
be subject to the provisions prescribed by the States. 

In the cases to which the two foregoing paragraphs 
refer, the ownership of the Nation is inalienable 
and may not be lost by prescription; concessions shall 
be granted by the Federal Government to private 
parties or civil or commercial corporations organized 
under the laws of Mexico, only on condition that 
said resources be regularly developed, and on the fur¬ 
ther condition that the legal provisions be observed. 

Legal capacity to acquire ownership of lands and 
waters of the nation shall be governed by the fol¬ 
lowing provisions: 

I— Only Mexicans by birth or naturalization and 

Mexican companies have the right to acquire owner¬ 
ship in lands, waters and their appurtenances, or to 
obtain concessions to develop mines, waters or min¬ 
eral fuels in the Republic of Mexico. The Nation 
may grant the same right to foreigners, provided 
they agree before the Department of Foreign Affairs 
to be considered Mexicans in respect to such prop¬ 
erty, and accordingly not to invoke the protection 

of their Governments in respect to the same, under 
penalty, in case of breach, of forfeiture to the Na¬ 
tion of property so acquired. Within a zone of 100 
kilometers from the frontiers, and of 50 kilometers 
from the sea coast no foreigner shall under any 
conditions acquire direct ownership of lands and 

waters. 

II— The religious associations known as churches, 

irrespective of creed, shall in no case have legal 
capacity to acquire, hold or administer real prop¬ 

erty or loans made on such real property; all such 
real property or loans as may be at present held by 
the said religious associations either on their own 
behalf, or through third parties, shall vest in the 
Nation, and any one shall have the right to de¬ 
nounce property so held.. Presumptive proof shall 
be sufficient to declare the denunciation well-founded. 
Places of public worship are the property of ttie 
Nation, as represented by the Federal Government, 
which shall determine which of them may con¬ 
tinue to be devoted to their present purposes. Episco¬ 
pal residences, rectories, seminaries, orphan asylums or 
collegiate establishments of religious associations, 
convents or any other buildings built or designed 
for the administration, propaganda, or teaching the 
tenets of any religious sect shall forthwith vest, 
as of full right, directly in the Nation, to be used 
exclusively for the public services of the Federa¬ 
tion or of the States, within their respective juris¬ 
dictions. All places of public worship which shall 
later be erected shall be the property of the nation. 

III— Public and private charitable institutions for 
the sick and needy, for scientific research, or for the 
diffusion of knowledge, mutual aid societies, or 
organizations formed for any other purpose shall in 
no case acquire, hold and administer loans made on 
real property, unless the mortgage terms do not ex¬ 
ceed ten years. In no case shall institutions of this 
character be under the patronage, direction, adminis¬ 
tration, charge or supervision of religious corpora¬ 
tions or institutions, nor of ministers of any re¬ 
ligious sect or of their dependents, even though 
either the former or the latter shall not be in 
service. 

IV— Commercial stock companies may not acquire, 
hold, or administer rural properties. Companies of 
this nature which may be organized to develop any 
manufacturing, mining, petroleum or other industry, 
excepting only agricultural industries, may acquire, 
hold or administer lands only in an area absolutely 
necessary for their establishments or adequate to 
serve the purposes indicated, which the Executive 
of the Union or of the State in each case shall 
determine. 

V— The banks duly organized under the laws gov¬ 
erning institutions of credit may make mortgage 
loans on rural and urban property in accordance 
with the provisions di the said laws, but they may 
not own or administer more real property than that 
absolutely necessary for 'their direct purposes; and 
they may’ furthermore hold temporarily for the brief 
term fixed by law such real property as may be 


judicially adjudicated to them in execution pro¬ 
ceedings. 

VI— Properties held in common by co-owners, ham¬ 
lets situated on private property, pueblos, tribal con¬ 
gregations and other settlements which, as a matter 
of fact or law, conserve their communal character, 
shall have legal capacity to enjoy in common the 
waters, woods and lands belonging to them, or which 
may have been or shall be restored to them accord¬ 
ing to the law of January 6, 1915, until such time 
as the manner of making the division exclusively of 
the lands shall be determined by law. 

VII— Excepting the corporations to which Clauses 
III, IV, V and VI hereof refer no other civil corpor¬ 
ation may hold or administer on its own behalf real 
estate or mortgage loans derived therefrom, with 
the single exception of buildings designed directly 
and immediately for the purposes of the institution. 
The States, the Federal District and the Territories 
as well as the Municipalities throughout the Republic 
shall enjoy full legal capacity to acquire and hold 
all real estate necessary for public services. 

The Federal and State laws shall determine within 
their respective jurisdictions those cases in which 
the occupation of private property is to be considered 
of public utility; and in accordance with the said 
laws the administrative authorities shall make the 
corresponding declaration. The amount fixed as 
compensation for the expropriated property shall be 
based on the sum at which the said property shall 
be valued for fiscal purposes in the catastral or 
revenue offices, whether this value be that manifested 
by the owner or merely impliedly accepted by reason 
of the payment of his taxes on such a basis, to 
which basis there shall be added ten per cent. The 
increased value which the property in question may 
have acquired through improvements made subse¬ 
quent to the date of the fixing of the fiscal value 
shall be the only matter subject to expert opinion 
and to judicial determination. The same procedure 
shall be observed in respect to objects whose value 
is not recorded in the revenue offices. 

All proceedings, dispositions, decisions and all 
operations of demarcation, concession, composition, 
judgment, compromise, alienation, or auction which 
may have deprived properties held in common by co¬ 
owners, hamlets situated on private property, settle¬ 
ments, congregations, tribes and other settlement 
organizations still existing since the law of June 25, 
1856, of the whole or a part of their lands, woods 
and waters, are declared null and void; all disposi¬ 
tions, resolutions and operations which may subse¬ 
quently take place and produce the same effects shall 
likewise be null and void. Consequently all lands, 
forests and waters of which the above-mentioned 
settlements may have been deprived shall be restored 
to them according to the decree of January 6, 1915. 
which shall remain in force as a constitutional la». 
In case the adjudication of lands, by way of resti¬ 
tution be not legal in the terms of the said decree 
which adjudication should have been requested by 
any of the above entities, those lands shall neverthe¬ 
less be given to them by way of grant, and they 
shall in no event fail to receive such as they may need. 
Only such lands, title to which may have been ac¬ 
quired in the divisions made by virtue of the said 
law of June 25, 1856, or such as may be held in un¬ 
disputed ownership for more than ten years are ex¬ 
cepted from the provision of nullity, provided their 
area does not exceed fifty hectares. Any excess over 
this area shall be returned, to the commune and the 
owner shall be indemnified. All laws of restitution 
enacted by virtue of this provision shall be im¬ 
mediately carried into effect by the administrative 
authorities. Only members of the commune shall have 
the right to the lands destined to be divided and 
the rights to these lands shall be inalienable so 
long as they remain undivided; the same provision 
shall govern the right of ownership after the di¬ 
vision has been made. The exercise of the rights 
pertaining to the Nation by virtue of this article 
shall be made by judicial process; but as 
a part of this process and by order of the proper 
tribunals, which order shall be issued within 

the maximum period of one month, the ad¬ 
ministrative authorities shall proceed without delay 
to the occupation, administration, auction, or sale 
of the lands and waters in qu-estion, together with 
all their appurtenances, and in no case may the acts 
of the said authorities be set aside until final sen¬ 
tence is handed down. 



During the next constitutional term, the Congress 
and the State Legislatures shall enact laws within 
their respective jurisdictions for the purpose of carry¬ 
ing out the division of large landed estates subject 
to the following conditions: 

(a) —In each State and Territory there shall be fixed 
the maximum area of land which any one individual 
or legally 'organized corporation may own. 

(b) —The excess of the area fixed shall be subdi¬ 
vided by the owner within the period set by the 
laws of the respective locality; and these subdivisions 
shall be offered for sale on such conditions as the 
respective governments shall approve, in accordance 
with the said laws. 

(c) If the owner shall refuse to make the subdi¬ 
vision, this shall be carried out by the local govern¬ 
ment, by means of expropriation proceedings. 

(d) —The value of the subdivisions shall be paid 
in annual amounts sufficient to amortize the principal 
and interest within a period of not less than twenty 
years, during which the person acquiring them may not 
alienate them. The rate of interest shall not exceed 
rive per cent per annum. 

(e) —The owner shall be bound to receive special 
bonds to guarantee the payment of the property expro¬ 
priated. With this end in view the Congress shall 
issue a law authorizing the States to issue bonds 
to meet their agrarian obligations. 

(f) —The local laws will govern the extent of 
family estate, determining what property will consti¬ 
tute the same on the basis of its inalienability; it 
shall not be subject to attachment nor to any charge. 

All contracts and concessions made my former gov¬ 
ernments from and after the year 1876 which shall 
have resulted in the monopoly of lands, waters and 
natural resources of the Nation by a single individual 
or corporation, are declared subject to revision, and 
the Executive is authorized to declare those null and 
'oid which seriously prejudice the public interest. 

Art. 2 8—There shall be no private nor govern¬ 
mental monopolies of any kind whatsoever in the 
United States of Mexico; nor exemption from taxa¬ 
tion ; nor any prohibition even under cover of pro¬ 
tection to industry, excepting only those relating to 
the coinage of money, to the postal, telegraphic, and 
radiotelegraphic services, to the issuance of bills by 
a single banking institution to be controlled by the 
Federal Government, and to the privileges which for 
a limited period the law may concede to authors and 
artists for the reproduction of their work; and lastly 
to. those granted inventors or improvers of inven¬ 
tions for the exclusive use of their inventions. 

The law will accordingly severely punish and the 
authorities diligently prosecute any accumulating or 
cornering by one or more persons of necessaries for 
the purpose of bringing about a rise in price; any 
act or measure which shall stifle or endeavor to stifle 
free competition in any production, industry, trade or 
public service; any agreement or combination of any 
kind entered into by producers, manufacturers, mer¬ 
chants, common carriers or other public or quasi¬ 
public service, to stifle competition and to compel the 
consumer to pay exorbitant prices; and in general 
whatever constitutes an unfair and exclusive advan¬ 
tage in favor of one or more specified person or per¬ 
sons to the detriment of the public in general or of 
any special class of society. 

/ 

Associations of labor organized to protect their own 
interests shall not be deemed a monopoly. Nor shall 
cooperative associations or unions of producers be 
deemed monopolies when, in defense of their own 
interests or of the general public, they sell directly 
in foreign markets national or industrial prod¬ 
ucts which are the principal source of wealth 
of the region in which they are produced, 
provided they be not necessaries, and provided fur¬ 
ther that such associations be under the supervision or 
protection of the Federal Government or of that of 
the States, and provided further that authorization 
be in each case obtained from the respective legisla¬ 
tive bodies. These legislative bodies may, either on 
their own initiative or on the recommendation of the 
executive, re-^oke, wh. .never the public interest shall so 
demand, th 1 authorization granted for the establish¬ 
ment of the associations in question. 

Art. 2g—In cases of invasion, grave disturbance 
of the public peace, or any other emergency which 
may place society in grave danger or conflict, the 
President of the Republic of Mexico, and no ope else, 
with the concurrence of the Council of Minij/ers. and 
with the approval of the Congress, or :he latter 

/ 


THE MEXICAN REVIEW 

shall be in recess, of the Permanent Committee, shall 

No foreigner shall meddle in any way whatsoever 
have power to suspend throughout the whole Republic 
or in any portion thereof, such rights as shall be a 
hindrance in meeting the situation promptly and read¬ 
ily, but such suspension shall in no case be con¬ 
fined to a particular individual, but shall be made by 
means of a general decree and only for a limited 
period. If the suspension should occur while 
the Congress is in session, this body shall grant such 
powers as in its judgment the executive may need 
to meet the situation; if the suspension occur while the 
Congress is in recess, the Congress shall be con¬ 
voked forthwith for the granting of such powers. 

CHAPTER II 

OF MEXICANS 

Article 30—A Mexican shall be such either by 
birth or by naturalization. 

I— Mexicans by birth are those born of Mexican 
parents, within or without the Republic, provided in 
the latter case the parents be also Mexicans by 
birth. Those born within the Republic of foreign par¬ 
entage shall likewise be considered Mexicans by birth, 
who within one year after they come of age shall 
declare to the Department of Foreign Affairs that they 
elect Mexican citizenship, and who shall furthermore 
prove to the said Department that they have resided 
within the country during the last six years imme¬ 
diately prior to the said declaration. 

II— Mexicans by naturalization are: 

(a) —The children of foreign parentage born in the 
country, who shall elect Mexican citizenship in the 
manner prescribed in the foregoing clause, and tn 
whom the residence qualification required in the said 
section does not concur. 

(b) —Those persons who shall have resided in the 
country for five consecutive years, have an honest 
means of livelihood and shall have obtained their 
naturalization from the said Department of Foreign 
Affairs. 

(c) —Those of mixed Indian and Latin descent who 
may have established residence in the Republic, who 
shall have manifested their intention to acquire Mexi¬ 
can citizenship. 

In the cases stipulated in these sections, the law 
shall determine the manner of proving the requisites 
therein demanded. 

Art. 31—It shall be the duty of every Mexican: 

I— To compel the attendance at either private or 
public schools of their children or wards, when under 
fifteen years of age, in order that they may receive 
primary instruction and military training for such 
periods as the law of public instruction in each State 
shall determine. 

II— To attend on such days and at such hours 
as the town council shall in each case prescribe, to 
receive such civic instruction and military training 
as shall fit them to exercise their civic rights, shall 
make them skillful in the handling of arms and fa¬ 
miliar with military discipline. 

III— To enlist and serve in the national guard, pur¬ 
suant to the respective organic law for the purpose 
of preserving and defending the independence, terri¬ 
tory, honor, rights and interests of the Fatherland, as 
well as domestic peace and order. 

IV— To contribute in the proportional and equita¬ 
ble manner provided by law toward the public ex¬ 
penses of the federation, the State and the munici¬ 
pality in which he resides. 

Art. 32—Mexicans shall be preferred under equal 
circumstances to foreigners for all kinds of conces¬ 
sions and for all public employments, offices or com¬ 
missions, when citizenship is not indispensable. No 
foreigner shall serve in the army nor in the police 
corps nor in any other department of public safety 
during times of peace. 

Only Mexicans by birth may belong to the national 
navy, or fill any office or commission therein. The 
same requisite shall be required for captains, pilots, 
masters and chief engineers of Mexican merchant 
ships, as well as for two-thirds of the members of the 
crew. 

CHAPTER III 

OF FOREIGNERS 

Article 33—Foreigners are those who do not pos¬ 
sess the qualifications prescribed by Article 30. They 
shall be entitled to the rights granted by Chapter I, 
Title I, of the present Constitution; but the Execu¬ 
tive shall have the exclusive right to expel from the 


5 

Republic forthwith and without judicial process, any 
foreigner whose presence he may deem inexpedient, 
in the political affairs of the country. 

CHAPTER IV 

OF MEXICAN CITIZENS 

Article 34 —Mexican citizenship shall be enjoyed 
only by those Mexicans who have the following 
qualifications: 

I— Are over 21 years of age, if unmarried, and 
over 18 , if married. 

II— Have an honest means of livelihood. 

Art. 35 —The prerogatives of citizens are: 

I— To vote at popular elections. 

II— To be eligible for any elective office and 
be qualified for any other office or commission pro¬ 
vided they have the other qualifications required by 
law. 

III— To assemble to discuss the political affairs • 
of the country. 

IV— To serve in the army or national guard for 
the defense of the Republic and its institutions as 
by law determined. 

V— To exercise the right of petition in any mat¬ 
ter whatever. 

Art. 36—It shall be the duty of every Mexican 
citizen: 

I— -To register in the polls of the municipality, 
setting forth any property he may own and his pro¬ 
fessional or industrial pursuit, or occupation; and 
also to register in the electoral registration lists, as 
by law determined. 

II— To enlist in the national guard: 

III— To vote at popular elections in the elec¬ 
toral district to which he belongs. 

IV— To fill the elective Federal or State offices 
to which he may be chosen which shall in no case 
be gratuitous. 

V— To serve on the town council of the munic¬ 
ipality wherein he resides and to perform all elec¬ 
toral and jury service. 

Art. 37 —Citizenship shall be lost: 

I— By naturalization in a foreign country. 

II— By officially serving the government of another 
country, or accepting its decorations, titles or em¬ 
ployment Without previous permission of the Federal 
Congress, excepting literary, scientific and humani¬ 
tarian titles which may be accepted freely. 

III— By compromising themselves in any way be¬ 
fore ministers of any religious creed or before any 
other person not to observe the present Constitution, 
or the laws arising thereunder. 

Art. 38 —The rights or prerogatives of citizenship 
shall be suspended for the following reasons: 

I— -Through failure to comply without sufficient 
cause with any of the obligations imposed by Ar¬ 
ticle 36 . This suspension shall last for one year 
and shall be in addition to any other penalties pre¬ 
scribed by law for the same offense. 

II— Through being subjected to criminal prose¬ 
cution for an offense punishable with imprisonment, 
such suspension to be reckoned from the date of 
the formal order of commitment. 

III— Throughout the term of imprisonment. 

IV— Through vagrancy or habitual drunkenness, de¬ 
clared in the manner provided by law. 

V— Through being a fugitive from justice, the 
suspension to be reckoned from the date of the 
order of arrest until the prescription of the criminal 
action. 

VI— Through any final sentence which shall de¬ 
cree as a penalty such suspension. 

The law shall determine the cases in which civic 
rights may be lost or suspended and the manner in 
which they may be regained. 

TITLE II 

CHAPTER I 

OF THE NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY AND FORM OF 
GOVERNMENT. 

Article 39 —The national sovereignty is vested es¬ 
sentially and originally in the people. All public 
power emanates from the people and is instituted 
for their benefit. The people have at all times the 
inalienable right to alter or modifv their form of 
government. 

Art. 40—It is the will of the Mexican people to 
constitute themselves into a democratic, federal, 
representative republic, consisting of States free and 
sovereign in all that concerns their internal affairs. 


6 


THE MEXICAN REVIEW 


but united in a federation according to the principles, 
of this fundamental law. 

Art. 41 —The people exercise their sovereignty 
through the federal powers in the matters belonging 
to the Union, and through those of the States in 
the matters relating to the internal administration 
of the latter. This power shall be exercised in the 
manner respectively established by the Constitutions, 
Doth Federal and State. The constitutions of the 
States shall in no case contravene the stipulations of 
the Federal constitution. 

CHAPTER II 

OF THE INTEGRAL PARTS OF THE FEDERATION AND THE 
NATIONAL TERRITORY 

Article 42 —The National Territory comprises the 
integral parts of the Federation and the adjacent 
islands in both oceans. It likewise comprises the 
. Island of Guadalupe, those of Revillagigedo, and 
that of “La Pasion,” situated in the Pacific Ocean. 

Art. 43 —The integral parts of the Federation are: 
The States of Aguascalientes, Campeche, Coahuila, 
Colima, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Durango, Guanajuato, 
Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Mexico, Michoacan, 
Morelos, Nayarit, Nuevo Leon, Oaxaca, Puebla, 
Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa, Sonora, Ta¬ 

basco, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Veracruz, Yucatan, 
Zacatecas, the Federal District, the Territory of 
Lower California, and the Territory of Quintana Roo. 

Art. 44 —The Federal District shall embrace its 
present territory; in the event of the removal of 
the Federal Powers to some other place it shall be 
created into the State of the Valley of Mexico, with 
such boundaries and area as the Federal Congress 
shall assign to it. 

Art. 45 —The States and Territories of the Fed¬ 

eration shall conserve their present boundaries and 
areas, provided no boundary question shall exist be¬ 
tween them. 

Art. 46 —The States having pending boundary 
• questions shall settle them as provided by this Con¬ 
stitution. 

Art. 47 —The State of Nayarit shall have the 
territorial area and boundaries at present comprising 
the territory of Tepic. 

Art. 48 —The islands in both oceans embraced 
within the national territory shall depend directly 
on the Federal Government, excepting those over 

which the States have up to the present time ex¬ 
ercised jurisdiction. 

TITLE III 
CHAPTER 1 

OF THE DIVISION OF POWERS 

Article 49—The supreme power of the Federation 
is divided for its exercise into legislative, executive 
and judicial. 

Two or more of these powers shall never be 
united in one person or corporation, nor shall the 
executive power be vested in one individual ex¬ 
cept in the case of extraordinary powers granted 
to the executive, in accordance with the provisions 
of Article 29 . 

CHAPTER II 

OF THE LEGISLATIVE POWER 

Article 50 —The legislative power of the Uni ed 
States of Mexico is vested in a general Congress 
which shall consist of a House of Representatives 
and a Senate. 

SECTION 1 

OF THE ELECTION AND INSTALLATION OF THE 
CONGRESS 

Article 51 —The House of Representatives shall 
consist of representatives of the Nation, all of whom 
shall be elected every two years by the citizens 
of Mexico. 

Art. 52 —One representative shall be chosen for 
each 60,000 inhabitants or for any fraction thereof 
exceeding 20,000, on the basis of the general census 
of the Federal District and of each State and Ter¬ 
ritory. Any State or Territory in which the pop 1 - 
ulation shall be less than that fixed by this Article 
shall, nevertheless, elect one representative. 

Art. 53 —There shall be elected an alternate for 
each Representative. 

Art. 54 —The election of Representatives shall be 
direct, in accordance with the provisions of the 
'“lectoral law. 


Art 55—Representatives shall have the following 
qualifications: 

I— They shall be Mexican citizens by birth and 
in the enjoyment of their rights. 

II— —They shall be over twenty-five years of age 
on the day of election. 

III— They shall be natives of the States or Ter¬ 
ritories respectively electing them, or domiciled and 
actually resident therein for six months immediately 
prior to the election. The domicile shall not be 
lost through absence in the discharge of any elec¬ 
tive office. 

IV— They shall not be in active service in the 
Federal army, not have any command in the Police 
corps or rural constabulary in the districts where 
the elections respectively take place, for at least 
ninety days immediately prior to the election. 

V— They shall not hold the office of secretary 
nor assistant secretary of any Executive Depart¬ 
ment or of Justice of the Supreme Court, unless 
they shall have resigned therefrom ninety days 
immediately prior to the election. 

No State Governor, Secretary of State of the 
several States, or State Judge shall be eligible in 
the Districts within their several jurisdictions, un¬ 
less they shall have resigned from their respective 
offices ninety days immediately prior to the day of 
election. 

VI— They shall not be ministers of any religious 
creed. 

Art. 56—The Senate shall consist of two Senators 
from each State and two from the Federal District, 
chosen in direct election. 

Each State Legislature shall certify to the election 
of the candidate who shall have obtained a ma¬ 
jority of the total number of votes cast. 

Art. 57 —There shall be elected an alternate for 
each Senator. 

Art. 58—Each Senator shall serve four years. The 
Senate shall be renewed by half every two years. 

Art. 59 —The oualifications necessary to be a 
Senator shall be the same as those necessary to 
be a Representative, excepting that of age, which 
shall be over thirty-five on the day of election. 

Art. 60 —Each House shall be the judge of the 
election of its members and shall decide all ques¬ 
tions arising therefrom. 

Its decisions shall be final. 

Art. 61—Representatives and iSenators are in¬ 
violable for opinions expressed by them in the dis¬ 
charge of their duties, and shall never be called to 
account for them. 

Art. 62 —Representatives and Senators shall be 
disqualified during the terms for which they have 
been elected from holding any Federal or State 
commission or office for which any emolument is 
received without previous permission of the re¬ 
spective House; in the event of their accepting such 
commission or office they shall forthwith lose their 
representative character for such time as they shall 
hold such appointive office. The same provision 
shall apply to alternate Representatives and Senators, 
when in active service. The violation of this pro¬ 
vision shall be punished by forfeiture of the office 

of Representative or Senator. 

Art. 63 —The Houses shall not. open their ses¬ 
sions nor exercise their functions without a quorum, 
in the Senate, of two-thirds, and in the House of- 
Representatives of a majority of the total member¬ 
ship; but the members present of either House 

shall meet on the -day appointed by law and compel 
the attendance of the absentees within the next 

thirty days, and they shall warn them that failure 
to comply with this provision shall be taken to be a 
refusal of office, and the corresponding alternates 
shall be summoned forthwith; the latter shall have 
a similar period within which to present themselves, 
and on their failure to do so the seats shall be 
declared vacant and new elections called. 

Representatives or Senators who shall be absent 
during ten consecutive days without proper cause 
or without leave of the President of the respective 
House, notice of which shall be duly communicated 
to the House, shall be understood as ' waiving their 
right to attend until the next session, and their 
alternates shall be summoned without delay. 

If there shall be no quorum to organize either 
of the Houses or to continue their labors, once 
organized, the alternates shall be ordered to pre¬ 
sent themselves as soon as possible for the purpose 
of taking office until the expiration of the thirty 
days hereinbefore mentioned. 

Art. 64 —No Representative or Senator who shall 


fail to attend any daily session wi.hout proper 
cause or without previous permission of the re¬ 
spective House, shall be entitled to the compensa¬ 
tion corresponding to the day on which he shall 
have been absent. 

Art. 65 —The Congress shall meet on the first day 
of September of each year in regular session for the 
consideration of the following matters: 

I— To audit the accounts of the previous year 
which shall be submitted to the House of Represen¬ 
tatives not later than ten days after the opening 
of the session. The audit shall not be confined to 
determining whether the expenditures do or do not 
conform with the respective items in the Budget, but 
shall comprise an examination of the exactness of 
and authorization for payments made thereunder and 
of any liability arising from such payments. 

No other secret items shall be permitted than those 
which the Budget may consider as such; these 
amounts shall be paid out by the secretaries of Execu¬ 
tive Departments under written orders of the Presi¬ 
dent. 

II— To examine, discuss and approve the Budget 
for the next fiscal year and to lay such taxes as 
may be needed to meet the expenditures. 

III— To study, discuss and vote on all bills pre¬ 
sented and to discuss all other matters incumbent 
upon the Congress by virtue of this Constitution. 

Art. 66—The regular session of the Congress shall 
last the period necessary to deal with all of the 
matters mentioned in the foregoing article, but it 
may not be extended beyond the thirty-first day of 
December of the same year. Should, both Houses 
fail to agree as to adjournment prior to the above 
date, the matter shall be decided by the executive. 

Art. 67 —The Congress shall meet in extraordinary 
session whenever so summoned by the President, but 
in such event it shall consider only the mattei 
or matters suomitted to it by the President, who 
shall enumerate it or them in the respective call 
The President shall have power to convene in ex¬ 

traordinary session only one of the Houses when 
the matter to be referred to it pertains to its ex¬ 
clusive jurisdiction. 

Art. 68—Both Houses shall hold their meetings in 
the same place and shall not move to another with¬ 
out having first agreed upon the moving and the 
time °nd manner of accomplishing it, as well as 
upon the place of meeting, which shall be l lie 
same for both Houses. If both Houses agree to 

change their meeting place but disagree as to the 
time, manner and place the President shall settle 
the question by choosing one of the two proposals. 
Neither House may suspend its sessions for more 

than three days without the consent of the other. 

Art. 69 —The President of the Republic shall at¬ 

tend at the opening of the sessions of the Congress, 
whether regular or extraordinary, and shall sub¬ 
mit a report in writing; this report shall in the former 
case, relate to the general state of the Union; and 
in the latter, it shall explain to the Congress or to 
the House addressed the reasons or causes which 
rendered the call necessary and the matters requir¬ 
ing immediate attention. 

Art. 70 —Every measure of the Congress shall be 
in the form of a law or decree. The laws or 

decrees shall be communicated to the Executive after 
having been signed b- the Presidents of boili 

Houses and by one of the secretaries of each 

When promulgated, the enacting clause shall read as 
follows: 

“The Congress of the United States of Mexico 
decrees (text of the law or decree).” 

SECTION II 

OF THE ORIGIN AND FORMATION OF THE LAWS. 

Art. 71 —The right to originate legislation per¬ 
tains : 

I— To the President of the Republic; 

II— To the Representatives and Senators of the 
Congress; 

III— To the Stare Legislatures. 

Bills submitted by the President of the Re¬ 
public, by State Legislatures or by delegations 
of the States shall be at once referred to committee. 
Those introduced by Representatives or Senators 
shall be subject to the rules of procedure. 

Art. 72 —All bills, action on which shall no* per¬ 
tain exclusively to one of the Houses, shall be dis¬ 
cussed first by one and then by the other, accord¬ 
ing to the rules of procedure as to the form 






time of presentation and other details relative to 
discussions and votes. 

(a) After a bill has been approved in the House 
where it originated it shall be sent to the other House 
for consideration. If passed by the latter it shall 
be transmitted to the President who, if he has no 
objection thereto, shall immediately promulgate it. 

(b) All bills not returned by the Executive within 
ten working days with his observations to the House 
in which they originated, shall be considered ap¬ 
proved unless during the said ten days the Con¬ 
gress shall have adjourned or suspended its ses¬ 
sions, in which event they shall be returned on the 
first working day after the Congress shall have re¬ 
convened. 

(c) Bills rejected in whole or in part by the 
Executive shall be returned with his observations 
to the House where they originated. They shall be 
discussed anew by this House and if confirmed by 
a two-thirds majority vote of the total membership 
shall be sent to the other House for reconsideration. 
If approved by it, also by the same majority vote, 
the bill shall become law and shall be returned 
to the Executive for promulgation. 

The voting in both Houses shall be by yeas 
and nays. 

(d) Bills totally rejected by the House not origi¬ 
nating them shall be returned with the proper ob¬ 
servations to the House of origin. If examined 
anew and approved by a majority of the members 
present, they shall be returned to the House re¬ 
jecting them, which shall once again take them 
under consideration, and if approved by it, likewise 
by the same majority vote they shall be sent to the 
Executive for the purposes of Clause A; but if the 
said House fail to approve them, they shall not be 
reintroduced in the same session. 

(e) Bills rejected in part or modified or amended 
by the House of revision shall be discussed anew 
in the House of origin, but the discussion shall be 
confined to tne portion rejected or to the amend¬ 
ments or additions, without the approved articles 
being altered in any respect. If the additions or 
amendments made by the House of revision be ap¬ 
proved by a majority vote of the members present 
in the House of origin, the bill shall be trans¬ 
mitted to the Executive for the purposes of Clause 
A; but if the amendments or additions by the 
House of revision be rejected by a majority vote 
of the House of origin they shall be returned to 
the former House in order that the reasons set 
forth by the latter may be taken into consideration. 
If in this second revision the said additions or 
amendments be rejected by a majority vote of the 
members present the portion of the bill which has 
been approved by both Houses shall be sent to the 
Executive for the purposes of Clause A. If the 
House of revision insist by a majority vote of the 
members present upon the additions or amendments, 
no action shall be taken on the whole bill until 
the next session, unless both Houses agree by a 
majority vote of the members present to the pro¬ 
mulgation of the law without the articles objected 
to, which shall be left till the next session, when 
they shall be then discussed and voted upon. 

(f) The same formalities as are required for 
the enactment of laws shall be observed for their 
interpretation, amendment or repeal. 

(g) No bill rejected in the House of origin be¬ 
fore passing to the other House shall be reintro¬ 
duced during the session of that year. 

(h) Legislative measures may be originated in 
either House, excepting bills dealing with loans, 
taxes or imposts, or with the raising of troops which 
must have their origin in the House of Representa¬ 
tives. 

(i) Whenever a bill shall be presented to one 
House it shall be first discussed there unless one 
month shall have elapsed since it was referred 
to committee and not reported, in which event 
an identical bill may be presented and discussed in 
the other House. 

(j) The President shall not make any observations 
touching the decisions of the Congress or of either 
House when acting as an electoral body of as a 
grand jury, nor when the House of Representatives 
shall declare tlfht there are grounds to impeach any 
high federal authority for official offenses. 

Nor shall he make any observations touching the 
order for a call issued by the PermanetJ Commit¬ 
tee as provided in Article 84 . 


THE MEXICAN REVIEW 

SECTION III 

OF THE POWERS OF CONGRESS. 

Article 73 .—The Congress shall have power: 

I— To admit new States or Territories into the 

Federal Union. 

\ 

II— To grant statehood to Territories having 
a population of 80,000 inhabitants and the ele¬ 
ments necessary to provide for their political ex¬ 
istence. 

III— -To form new States within the boundaries 
of existing ones provided the following requisites are 
complied with: 

1 — That the section or sections aspiring to state¬ 
hood have a population of 120,000 inhabitants at 
least; 

2 — That proof be given to the Congress that it 
has sufficient means to provide for its political ex¬ 
istence ; 

3 — That the legislatures of the States affected be 
heard as to the advisability or inadvisability of 
granting such statehood, which opinion shall be 
given within six months after the date of the com- 
muunication addressed to them on the subject; 

4— That the opinion of the Executive of the Fed¬ 
eral Government be also heard on the subject; said 
opinion to be given within seven days after the 
date on which it was requested. 

5 — That the creation of the new State be voted 
upon favorably by two-thirds of the Representatives 
and Senators present in their respective Houses. 

6— That the resolution of the Congress be ratified 
by a majority of the State Legislatures, upon ex¬ 
amination of the copy of the record of the case, 
provided that the Legislatures of the States to 
which the section belongs shall have given their 
consent. 

7 — If the Legislatures of the States to which 
the Section belongs have not given their consent, 
the ratification referred to in the foregoing Clause 
shall be made by two-thirds of the Legislatures of 
the other States. 

IV— To settle finally the limits of the States, 
terminating the differences which may arise be¬ 
tween them relative to the demarcation of their re¬ 
spective territories, except when the differences be 
of a litigious nature. 

V— To change the residence of the supreme 
powers of the Federation. 

VI— To legislate in all matters relating to the Fed¬ 
eral District and the Territories, as hereinafter 
provided: 

1 — The Federal District and the Territories shall 
be divided into municipalities, each of which shall 
have the area and population sufficient for its own 
support and for its contribution toward the common 
expenses. 

2 — Each municipality shall be governed by a 
town council elected, by direct vote of the people. 

3 — -The Federal District and each of the Terri¬ 
tories shall be administered by Governors under the 
direct orders of the President of the Republic. The 
Governor of the Federal District shall despatch 
with the President, and the Governor of each Ter¬ 
ritory shall despatch with the President through 
the duly constituted channels. The Governor of 
the Federal District and the Governor of each 
territory shall be appointed by the President and 
may be removed by him at will. 

4— The Superior Judges and those of First In¬ 
stance of the Federal District and those of the Terri¬ 
tories shall be named by the Congress, acting in each 
case as an electoral college. In the temporary or 
permanent absences of the said Superior Judges these 
shall be replaced by appointment of the Congress, 
and in recess by temporary appointments of the Pei- 
manent Committee. The organic law shall deter¬ 
mine the manner of filling temporary vacancies in 
the case of judges, and shall designate the authority 
before whom they shall be called to account for any 
dereliction, excepting the provisions of this Constitu¬ 
tion with regard to the responsibility of officials. 
From and after the year 1923 the Superior Judges 
and those of First Instance to which this clause 
refers may only be removed from office for bad 
conduct and after impeachment, unless they shall 
have been promoted to the next higher grade. 
From and after the said date the compensation en¬ 
joyed by said officials shall not be diminished dur¬ 
ing their term of office. 

5— The office of the Public Attorney (Ministerio 
Publico) of the Federal District and of the Terri¬ 
tories. shall be in charge of an Attorney General, who 



7 

shall reside in the City of Mexico and of such Public 
Attorney or Attorneys as the law may determine; the 
said Attorney General shall be under the direct orders 
of the President of the Republic, who shall ap¬ 
point and may remove him at will. 

VII— To lay the taxes necessary to meet the ex¬ 
penditures of the Budget. 

VIII— To establish the conditions upon which 
the Executive may make loans on the credit of the 
nation; to approve the said loans and to recognize 
and order the payment of the public debt. 

IX— To enact tariff laws on foreign commerce and 
to prevent restrictions from being imposed on inter¬ 
state commerce. 

X— To legislate for the entire Republic in all 
matters relating to mining, commerce, and credit in¬ 
stitutions, and to establish the sole bank of issue 
as provided in Article 28 of this Constitution. 

XI— To create and abolish Federal offices and 
to fix, increase or decrease the compensations as¬ 
signed thereto. 

XII —To declare war upon examination of the 
facts submitted by the Executive. 

XIII— To regulate the manner in which letters 
of marque may be issued; to enact laws according 
to which prizes on land and sea shall be adjudged 
valid or invalid, and to frame the admiralty law 
for times of peace and war. 

XIV— To raise and maintain the army and navy 
of the Union and to regulate their organization and 
service. 

XV— To make rules for the organization and 
discipline of the Natipnal Guard, reserving for the 
citizens who compose it the right of appointing 
their respective commanders and officers, and to the 
States the power of instructing it in conformity 
with the discipline prescribed by the said regula¬ 
tions. 

XVI— To enact laws on citizenship, naturalization, 
colonization, emigration, immigration and public 
health of the Republic. 

1 — The Public Health service shall depend di¬ 
rectly upon the ‘President of the Republic, without 
the intervention of any Executive Department, and 
its general provisions shall be binding throughout 
the Republic. 

2— In the event of epidemics of a grave or 
dangerous nature, of the invasion of diseases from 
abroad, the Public Health Service shall be called 
upon to put into force without delay the neces¬ 
sary preventive measures, subect to their subse¬ 
quent sanction by the President of the Republic. 

3 The sanitary authorities shall have executive 
faculties and their determinations shall be obeyed by 
the administrative authorties of the country. 

4 —All measures which the Public Health Ser¬ 
vice shall have p**te into effect in its campaign 

against alcoholism and the sale of substances in¬ 
jurious to man and to the race shall be subse¬ 
quently revised by the Congress in such cases 

as fall within the jurisdiction of the latter. 

XVII— To enact laws on general means of com¬ 
munication, postroads and post offices and to enact 
laws as to the use and development of the waters 
subject to the Federal jurisdiction. 

XVIII—To establish mints, regulate the value and 
kinds of the national currency, fix the value of 
xoreign moneys and adopt a general system of 

weights and measures. 

XIX— To make rules for the occupation and sale 
of public lands and the prices therefor. 

XX— To enact laws as to the organization of 
the diplomatic and consular services. 

XXI— To define the crimes and offenses against 
the Nation and to fix the penalties therefor. 

XXII— To grant a nnesty for offenses subject to 
the jurisdiction of the Federal Courts. 

XXIII—To make n.'es for its internal govern¬ 
ment and to enact the n.cessary provisions to compel 
the attendance of absent Representatives and Sen¬ 
ators and to punish the a< ts of commission or omis¬ 
sion’ of those nresent. 

XXIV— To issue the orga tic law of the Auditor 
General’s office. 

XXV— To sit as an electoral college and to name 
the Justices of the Supreme Court, and the Su¬ 
perior and Inferior Judges of th' Federal District 
and Territories. 

XXVI^To accept the resignation 1 of the Jus¬ 
tices of the Supreme Court and of 'he Superior 
and Inferior Judges of the Federal D. ‘riel and 

(Continued on page 9) 


8 


THE MEXICAN REVIEW 


The- 


Mexican Review 



A • JOURNAL* OEVOTED• TO 
THE • ENLIGHTENMENT* OF *THE 
AMERICAN*PEOPLE*IN*RESPECT 
TO • THE • HOPES • AMBITIONS 
BENEFICENT • INTENTIONS • AND 
ACCOMPLISHMENTS • OF -THE 
CONSTITUTIONALIST-GOVERNMENT 
•OF*THE- 

REPUBLIOof-MEXICO 


(Vi 





Published Monthly at 
Washington, I). C., U. S. A. 

(ieorge F. Weeks .... Editor and Publisher 
613 Riggs Building 

Yearly Subscription $1.00 in the United States and 
Possessions, Mexico and Canada. 
Elsewhere $1.50 

Eastern Representative, 3014 Equitable Bldg., New 
York; Mexican Representative. Avenida Juarez 12, 
Mexico City, I). F. 


THE NEW CONSTITUTION 

The Review gives herewith the complete 
text of the new Constitution of Mexico, 
which was adopted at Queretaro, on Jan¬ 
uary 31 st, after a session of over two months 
spent in its discussion by the Constituent Con¬ 
gress. 

The translation has been carefully made 
by a competent linguist who has in the past 
performed similar tasks with fidelity and 
success, and The Review believes that as 
given here it is a correct reflex in the Eng¬ 
lish language of the meaning of the authors 
of this notable document. 

It had been hoped to present the old 
Constitution side by side with the new, in 
order that readers might the more readily 
compare the two and determine for them¬ 
selves the changes that have been made. 
Lack of space, however, prevents this, but 
in future issues The Review will from time 
to time give the more notable differences 
between the old and the new Constitutions. 

Notable features are the addition of new 
sections such as the agrarian law, the labor 
law, etc, which had no place in the for¬ 
mer organic code. These and many other 
features as well will well repay study by 
all interested in Mexico, as also those 
concerned in the uplift of* the human race. 

The new Constitution of Mexico is one 
of the most progressive and in many re¬ 
spects radical codes that the world has yet 
seen. - 

The work of translation was undertaken by 
Mr. H. N. Branch, who is a graduate of the 
George Washington University Law Scho< 1 
and has had broad experience with Mexican 
legal terminology; he is thus particularly well- 
fitted to undertake work involving an analyti¬ 
cal study of the common law and the civil 
law. The character of the work is sufficient 
testimony to the ability of the translator in this 
direction. 

PRESIDENT WILSON AND MEXICO 

In the February issue of Everybody’s Maga¬ 
zine is a lengthy interview with President Wil¬ 
son, in which occurs the following pungent 
ai d interesting statement: 

“With respect to Mexico no change in policy 
may be expected. In speaking of this matter 
the whole manner of the President betrayed 
a fixed and indomitable resolution: 

“No peace will be imposed upon Mexico 
that will suppress permanently a people’s 
struggle to freedom and self-government,” 
said the President. “No aid will be given 
to the restoration of a dictatorship. The 
safety of the border must be secured, and 
no activity will be spared to protect Ameri¬ 


can lives and property, but this course is 
in no wise incompatible with the firm con¬ 
viction that Mexico can never become a 
peaceful, law-abiding neighbor until she has 
been permitted to achieve a permanent and 
basic settlement of her troubles without out¬ 
side interference. Lack of appreciation of the 
patience and forbearance of the United States 
may irritate and anger, but in no wise does 
it change the fundamental issues.” 

It is worth while at this juncture to quote 
the memorable utterance of the President 
made at Indianapolis in 1914, and which 
was received with such warm approval in 
Mexico. He said: 

“There is one thing I have a great en¬ 
thusiasm about—I might almost say a reck¬ 
less enthusiasm—and that is human liberty. 
I hold it as a fundamental principle that 
every people has the right to determine its 
own form of government; and until this 
recent revolution in Mexico, until the end 
of the Diaz reign, 80 per cent of the people 
of Mexico never had a “look in” in deter¬ 
mining who should be their governor or 
what their government should be. Now 
I am for the 80 per cent. It is none of my 
business and it is none of your business 
how long they take in determining it. The 
country is theirs. The Government is theirs. 
The liberty if they can get it—and God 
speed them in getting it—is theirs. And 
so far as my influence goes, while' I am 
President nobody shall interfere with them. 
That is what I mean by a great emotion, 
the great emotion of sympathy. Do you 
suppose that the American people are ever 
going to count a small amount of material 
benefit and advantage to people doing busi¬ 
ness in Mexico against the liberties and 
the permanent happiness of the Mexican 
people? Have not European nations taken 
as long as they wanted and spilt as much 
blood as they pleased in settling their af¬ 
fairs, and shall we deny that to Mexico 
because she is weak? No, I say!” 

NOTE AND COMMENT 

First Chief Carranza has issued a decree 
under the provisions of the new Constitu¬ 
tion, calling for elections for President, 
Senators and Congressional Deputies, to be 
held on the second Sunday in March (the 
nth). The officials thus elected will be 
installed in office on the 1st of May. A 
preliminary session of Congress will be 
held on April 2d, continuing for twelve 
days thereafter, for the purpose of exam¬ 
ining the credentials of the members and 
subsequently computing the votes cast for 
Presideht and declaring the result. 

The cordial relations that exist between 
labor and capital in some directions at 
least in Mexico, are shown by the recent 
holding of a Congress of Railway Employes 
in Mexico City for the purpose of discuss¬ 
ing and arranging many matters of im¬ 
portance, including wages, hours of labor, 
etc. This Congress was called at the direct 
request of the managers of the lines, and 
the proceedings are said to have been har¬ 
monious and satisfactory to both sides. It 
is probably the first instance of the kind 
in the world’s history, and is an apt illus¬ 
tration of the changed conditions for the 
better that have attended the triumph of 
the Revolution. _ 

The rapid restoration of normal condi¬ 
tions in Mexico is clearly and indisputably 
evidenced by the statistics of commerce be¬ 
tween that country and the United States. 


For the eleven months ending November, 
1916, the total trade between the two coun¬ 
tries was over $143,000,000 or for the twelve 
months approximately $156,000,000, there 
being a constant and steady increase from 
month to month. The revival of mining 
is shown in the most marked manner by the 
fact that in the eleven months noted the 
shipments of copper from Mexico to the 
United States totaled nearly twenty mil¬ 
lion dollars, while for the same period of 
the previous year they amounted to only 
nine millions. Shipments of sisal fibre in¬ 
creased over four and a half million dol¬ 
lars and shipments of oil were nearly twen¬ 
ty-five per cent greater than during the 
previous year. Altogether the detailed fig¬ 
ures afford much food for thought—notably 
as to the accuracy of the widespread alle¬ 
gations that conditions of turmoil and an¬ 
archy are the rule and not the exception 
in the southern Republic. 


It having been reported in Mexico and 
in Queretaro, on the arrival of Secretary 
Cabrera, of the Treasury Department, from 
his long stay in the United States as a mem¬ 
ber of the Mexican-American Commission, 
that he had engaged in negotiations regard¬ 
ing a loan to the Government of the Re¬ 
public, a most positive official denial has 
been issued. It is declared that several 
prominent American banking houses made 
tenders of loans, but that all were declined 
on the ground that the time has not yet 
arrived for such negotiations. As The Re¬ 
view has already announced, no bond issue 
to secure a loan can be made until such 
issue is authorized by the chief legislative 
body of the Republic, and there has been 
no such body in existence since the com¬ 
mencement of the usurpation of Huerta. 
The Congress that is to be chosen on the 
nth of March will have that power and 
can exercise it if it shall be deemed proper. 


EDUCATIONAL QUESTION EX¬ 
PLAINED 


In answer to a question asked by a “Uni¬ 
versal” reporter, caused by a recently pub¬ 
lished statement as to the activities of a 
group of educators in the United States 
concerning educational matters in Mexico, 
Secretary Andres Osuna, of the Department 
of Education and Fine Arts, said that it 
was a mistake to suppose that he belonged 
to any organization having interventionist 
views on national education. While it is 
true that he has given some data relative 
to instruction in the schools to institutes 
and educational groups in the United States, 
he had done so in the character of Director- 
General of Education and at the solicita¬ 
tion of those interested. He added that he 
was in receipt daily of letters from institu¬ 
tions interested in acquiring information 
regarding the schools of Mexico, but in¬ 
spired solely by student interest. 


Because of publishing the new Constitution 
the Spanish page is omitted "in this issue. 
However, a specially prepared sheet of Spanish 
will be sent to those who have become mem¬ 
bers of Spanish Forum by subscription to 
the magazine. 

























THE MEXICAN REVIEW 


9 


POLITICAL CONSTITUTION 

(Continued from page 7) 

Territories, and to name substitutes in their ab¬ 
sence and to appoint their successors. 

XXVII—To establish professional schools of 
scientific research and fine arts, vocational, agri¬ 
cultural and trade schools, museums, libraries, ob¬ 
servatories and other institutes of higher learning, 
until such time as these establishments can be 
supported by private funds. These powers shall not 
pertain exclusively to the Federal Government. 

All degrees conferred by any of the above institu¬ 
tions shall be valid throughout the Republic. 

XXVIII—To sit as an electoral college and to 
choose the person to assume the office of Presi¬ 
dent of the Republic, either as a substitute Presi¬ 
dent or as a President ad interim in the terms es¬ 
tablished by Articles 84 and 85 of this Constitution. 

XXIX— To accept the resignation of the Presi¬ 
dent of the Republic. 

XXX— To audit the accounts which shall be sub¬ 
mitted annually by the Executive; this audit shall 
comprise not only the checking of the items dis¬ 
bursed under the Budget but the exactness of and 
authorization for the expenditures in each case. 

XXXI— To make all laws necessary for carrying 
into execution the foregoing powers and all other 
powers vested by this Constitution in the several 
branches of the Government. 

Art. 74 —The House of Representatives shall have 
the following exclusive powers: 

I— To sit as an electoral college to exercise the 
powers conferred by law as to the election of the 
President. 

II— To watch by means of a special committee 

appointed from among its own members over the 

faithful performance by the Auditor General of the 
nation in the discharge of his duties. 

III— To appoint all the higher officers and other 
employees of the Auditor General’s office. 

IV— To approve the annual Budget, after a dis¬ 
cussion as to what taxes must in its judgment be 
laid to meet the necessary expenditures. 

V— To take cognizance of all charges brought 

against public officials, as herein provided, for of¬ 
ficial offenses, and should the circumstances so 

warrant to impeach them before the Senate; and 
further to act as a grand jury to decide whether 
there is or is not good ground for proceeding 
against any official enjoying constitutional privileges, 
whenever accused of offenses of the common order. 

VI— To exercise such other powers as may be 
expressly vested in it by this Constitution. 

Art. 75 —The House of Representatives, in pass¬ 
ing the budget, shall assign a definite compensa¬ 
tion to every office created by law, and if for any 
reason such compensation shall not be assigned, the 
amount fixed in the preceding Budget or in the 
law creating the office shall be presumed to be 
assigned. 

Art. 76—The Senate shall have the following ex¬ 
clusive powers: 

I— To approve the treaties and diplomatic con¬ 
ventions concluded by the Executive with foreign 
powers. 

II— To ratify the nominations made by the Presi¬ 
dent of diplomatic ministers or agents, consuls gen¬ 
eral, higher officials of the treasury, colonels and 
other superior officers of the army and navy as by 
law provided. 

III— To authorize the Executive to allow the 
■national troops to go beyond the limits of the 
Republic or to permit foreign troops to pass 
through the national territory and to consent to 
the presence of foreign fleets for more than one 
month in Mexican waters. 

IV— To give its consent to the use, by the 
President, of the national guard beyond the limits 
■of the respective States or Territories and to fix 
the amount of the force to be used. 

V— To declare when the constitutional powers 
of any State have disappeared, that the occasion has 
■arisen to give to the said State a provisional Gov¬ 
ernor, who shall call for elections to be held ac¬ 
cording to the constitution and laws of the said 
State. The appointment of such a Governor shall 
be made by the Senate with the approval of two- 
thirds of its members present or during recess by 
the Permanent Committee by the same two-thirds 
majority from among three names proposed by 
the President. The official thus selected . shall 
not be chosen constitutional governor in the elec¬ 


tions to be held under the call which he shall 
issue. This provision shall govern whenever the 
State Constitutions do not provide for the con¬ 
tingency. 

VI— To sit as a Grand Jury to take cognizance 
of such official offenses of functionaries as are ex¬ 
pressly prescribed by this Constitution. 

VII— To exercise such other powers as may be 
exDressly vested in it by this Constitution. 

VIII— To adjust all political questions arising be¬ 
tween the powers of a State whenever one of them 
shall appeal to the Senate or whenever by virtue of 
such differences a clash of arms.has arisen to inter¬ 
rupt the constitutional order. In this event the 
Senate shall decide in accordance with the Federal 
Constitution and the Constitution of the State in¬ 
volved. 

The exercise of this power and of the foregoing 
shall be regulated by law. 

Art. 77 —Each House may, without the interven¬ 
tion of the other: 

I— Pass resolutions for matters exclusively relat¬ 
ing to its own interior government. 

II— Communicate with the other House, and with 
the Executive through the intermediary of com¬ 
mittees appointed from among its members. 

III— Appoint the employees in the office of the 
secretary and to make all rules and regulations for 
the said office. 

IV— Issue a call for extraordinary elections to fill 
any vacancies which may have occurred in its mem¬ 
bership. 

SECTION IV 

OF THE PERMANENT COMMITTEE. 

Article 78 —During the recesses of the Congress 
there shall be a Permanent Committee consisting 
of 29 members, 15 of whom shall be Representa¬ 
tives and 14 Senators, appointed by the respective 
Houses on the eve of the day of adjournment. 

Art. 79 —In addition to the powers expressly 
vested in it by this Constitution, the Permanent 
Committee shall have the following powers: 

I— To give its consent to the use of the national 
guard as provided in Article 76 , Clause IV. 

II— To administer the oath of office should the 
occasion arise, to the President, to the Members of 
the Supreme Court, to the Superior Judges of the 
Federal District and Territories, on such occa¬ 
sions as the latter officials may happen to be in the 
City of Mexico. 

III— To report on all pending matters, so that 
they may be considered in the ensuing session. 

IV— To call extraordinary sessions in the case of 
official offenses or offenses of the common order 
committed by secretaries of Executive Departments 
or Justices of the Supreme Court, and official 
offenses committed by State Governors provided 
the case shall have been already instituted by the 
Committee of the Grand T ury, in which event no 
other business of the Congress snail be considered, 
nor shall the sessions be prolonged beyond the time 
necessary for a decision. 

CHAPTER III 

OF THE EXECUTIVE POWER. 

Article 80—The exercise of the Supreme Executive 
power of the nation is vested in a single individual 
who shall be called “President of the United States 
of Mexico.” 

Art. 81 —The election of the President shall be 
direct in accordance with the provisions of the 
electoral law. 

Art. 82 —The President of the Republic shall have 
the following qualifications: 

I— He shall be a Mexican citizen by birth, in the 
full enjoyment of his rights and he must be the 
son of Mexican parents by birth. 

II— -He shall be over thirty-five years of age at 
the time of election. 

III— Pie shall have resided in the country during 
the entire year prior to the election. 

IV— He shall not belong to any ecclesiastical 
order nor be a minister of any religious creed. 

V— In the event of belonging to the army he 
shall have retired from active service 90 days im¬ 
mediately prior to the election. 

VI— He shall not be a secretary or assistant sec¬ 
retary of any Executive Department unless he shall 
have resigned from office 90 days prior to the 
election. 


VII—He shall not have taken part, directly or 
indirectly, in any uprising, riot or military coup. 

Art 83 —The President shall enter upon the duties 
of his office on the first day of December, shall serve 
four years and shall never be reelected. 

The citizen who shall replace the constitutional 
President in the event of his permanent disability 
shall not be elected President for the ensuing term. 

Nor shall the person designated as Acting President 
during the temporary disabilities of the constitutional 
President be re-elected President for the ensuing term. 

Art. 84 —In the event of the permanent disability 
of the President of the Republic, if this shall occur 
within the first two years of the respective term, 
the Congress, if in session, shall forthwith V act as 
an electoral college and with the attendance of at 
least two-thirds of its total membership shall choose 
a President by secret ballot and by a majority vote; 
and the same Congress shall issue the call for Presi¬ 
dential elections and shall endeavor to have the 
date set for this event as far as possible coincide 
with the date of the next election of Representatives 
and Senators to Congress. 

Should the disability of the President occur while 
Congress is in recess, the Permanent Committee shall 
forthwith designate a President ad interim who shall 
call Congress together in extraordinary session, in 
order that it may in turn issue the call for Presi¬ 
dential elections in the manner provided in the fore¬ 
going article. 

Should the disability of the President occur in 
the last two years of the respective term, the Con¬ 
gress, if in session, shall choose the substitute to 
conclude the period of the Presidential term; if 
Congress shall not be in session the Permanent 
Committee shall choose a President ad interim and 
shall summon Congress in extraordinary session in 
order that it may act as an electoral college and 
proceed to the election of the substitute President. 

The President ad interim may be chosen by Con¬ 
gress as substitute President. 

The citizen designated as President ad interim for 
the purpose of calling elections, in the event of 
the disability of the President within the two first 
years of the respective term, shall not be chosen in 
the elections held to fill such vacancy and for which 
he was designated. 

Art. 85 —If the President-Elect shall fail to present 
himself at the beginning of any constitutional term, 
or the election not have been held and the result 
made known by the first of December, the outgoing 
President shall nevertheless vacate office and the 
President ad interim chosen by the Congress, or in 
its recess by the Permanent Committee, shall forth¬ 
with assume the executive power. All action taken 
hereunder shall be governed by the provisions of 
the foregoing article. 

In case of a temporary disability of the President, 
the Congress, or the Permanent Committee if the 
Congress shall not be in session, shall designate an 
Acting President during such disability. If a tem¬ 
porary disability shall become permanent the action 
prescribed in the preceding article shall be taken. 

In the event of a leave of absence granted to 
the President of the Republic the person acting in 
his stead shall not be disqualified from being elected 
in the ensuing period, provided he shall not have 
been in office during the holding of elections. 

Art. 86—The President may not resign office ex¬ 
cept for grave cause, upon which the Congress shall 
pass, to which body the resignation shall be tendered. 

Art. 87—The President before entering upon the 
discharge of the duties of his office, shall make the 
following affirmation before the Congress, or in 
its recess before the Permanent Committee: 

“I do solemnly affirm that I will defend and 
enforce the Constitution of the United States of 
Mexico and the laws arising thereunder and that 
I will faithfully and conscientiously perform the 
duties of President of the United States of Mexico, 
to which I have been chosen by the people, having 
ever in mind the welfare and prosperity of the 
Nation; if I shall fail to do so, may the Nation 
call me to account.” 

Art. 88—The President may not absent himself 
from the national territory without the permission 
of the Congress. 

Art. 89 —The President shall have the following 
powers and duties: 

I—To promulgate and execute the laws enacted by 
the Congress, providing in the administrative sphere 
for their faithful observance. 


10 


THE MEXICAN REVIEW 


II— To appoint and remove at will the Secretaries 
of Executive Departments, the Attorney General 
of the Republic, the Governor of the Federal Dis¬ 
trict, the Governors of Territories, the Attorney 
General of the Federal District and Territories; and 
to appoint and remove at will all other Federal em¬ 
ployees whose appointment or removal is not other¬ 
wise provided for by law or in this Constitution. 

III— To appoint by and with the approval and 
consent of the Senate all ministers, diplomatic agents 
and consuls general. 

IV— To appoint by and with the approval of the 
Senate the colonels and other superior officers of 
the army and navy and the superior officials of the 
Treasury. 

V— To appoint all other officers of the army and 
navy as by law provided. 

VI— To dispose of the permanent land and sea 
forces for the domestic safety and defense of the 
Union. 

VII— To dispose of the national guard for the 
same purposes, as provided by Article 76, Clause IV. 

VIII— To declare war in the name of the United 
States of Mexico, after the passage of the correspond¬ 
ing resolution by the Congress. 

IX— To grant letters of marque, upon the terms 
and conditions fixed by the Congress. 

X— To conduct diplomatic negotiations and to enter 
into treaties with foreign powers, submitting them 
for ratification to the Congress. 

XI— To call Congress or either of the Houses 
in extraordinary session, whenever in his judgment 
it may be advisable. 

XII— To afford the judiciary all the assistance 
necessary for the expeditious exercise of its func¬ 
tions. 

XIII— To open all kinds of ports, establish mari¬ 
time and frontier customs houses and designate their 
location. 

XIV— To grant, according to law, pardons to 
criminals sentenced for offenses within the jurisdic¬ 
tion of the Federal tribunals, and to all persons 
sentenced for offenses of the common order in the 
Federal District and Territories. 

XV— To grant exclusive privileges for a limited 
time, and according to the respective laws, to dis¬ 
coverers, inventors or improvers in any branch of 
industry. 

XVI— Whenever the Senate shall not be in session 
the President may temporarily make the appoint¬ 
ments enumerated in Clauses III and IV hereof, 
but these appointments shall be submitted to the 
Senate so soon as it reconvenes. 

XVII— To exercise such other rights and duties 
as are expressly conferred upon him by this Con¬ 
stitution. 

Art. 90—For the transaction of administrative 
matters of the Federal Government there shall be 
the number of Secretaries of Executive Depart¬ 
ments which the Congress may by law establish, 
which law shall likewise assign among the several 
Departments the several matters with which each 
shall be charged. 

Art. 91—No person shall be appointed Secretary 
of an Executive Department who is not a Mexican 
citizen by birth and in the enjoyment of his rights 
and who has not attained the age of thirty years. 

Art. 92—All rules, regulations, decrees and orders 
of the President shall be signed by the Secretary 
of the Executive Department to which the matter 
pertains. They shall not be binding without this 
requisite. All rules, regulations and orders of the 
President touching the government of the Federal 
District and of the Administrative Departments shall 
be transmitted directly by the President to the 
Governor of the District and to the Chief of the 

respective Department. 

Art. 93—The Secretaries of Executive Departments 
shall on the opening of each regular session report 
to the Congress as to the state of their respective 
Departments. Either House may summon a Sec¬ 

retary of an Executive Department to inform it, 
whenever a bill or other matter pertaining to his 

department is under discussion. 

CHAPTER IV. 

OF THE JUDICIAL POWER. 

Art. 94—The judicial power of the Federation 
is vested in a Supreme Court and in Circuit and 
District Courts, whose number and powers shall be 
fixed by law. The Supreme Court of Justice shall 
consist of eleven members; its sittings shall be in 


banc and open to the public, except in the cases 
where public interest or morality shall otherwise 
require. It shall meet at such times and under 
such conditions as by law prescribed. No sittings 
of the Court shall be held without the attendance 
of at least two-thirds of its total membership, and 
all decisions rendered shall be by a majority vote. 

The Justices of the Supreme Court chosen to this 
office in the forthcoming elections shall serve two 
years; those elected at the conclusion of this first 
term shall serve four years, and from and after 
the year 1923 the Justices of the Supreme Court, 
the Circuit and District judges may only be removed 
for malfeasance and after impeachment proceedings, 
unless the Circuit and District Judges be promoted 
to the next higher grade. 

The same provision shall govern insofar as it be 
applicable to the terms of two and four years, 
respectively, to which this article refers. 

Art. 95—The Justices of the Supreme Court shall 
have the following qualifications: 

I— They shall be Mexican citizens by birth, in 
the full enjoyment of their civil and political rights. 

II— They shall be over thirty-five years of age at 
the time of election. 

III— They shall be graduates in law, of some 
institution or corporation authorized by law to 
confer such degrees. 

IV— They shall be of good repute and not have 
been convicted of any offense punishable with more 
than one year’s imprisonment; but conviction of 
larceny, deceit, forgery, embezzlement or any other 
offense seriously impairing their good name in the 
public mind shall disqualify them for office what¬ 
ever may have been the penalty imposed. 

V— They shall have resided in the country for 
the last five years, except in the case of absence 
due to public service abroad for a period not ex¬ 
ceeding six months. 

Art. 96—The members of the Supreme Court of 
Justice shall be chosen by the Congress, acting as an 
electoral college; the presence of at least two-thirds of 
the total number of Representatives and Senators shall 
be necessary for such action. The election shall 
be by secret ballot and by a majority vote, and 
shall be held as among the candidates previously 
proposed, one being nominated by each State legisla¬ 
ture as provided in the respective State laws. 

Should no candidate receive a majority on the 
first ballot, the balloting shall be repeated between 
the two candidates receiving the highest number of 
votes. 

Art. 97—All Circuit and District Judges shall be 
appointed by the Supreme Court of Justice; they shall 
have such qualifications as by law required, shall serve 
four years and shall not be removed except by im¬ 
peachment proceedings or for incapacity to discharge 
their duties, in accordance with the law. 

The Supreme Court of Justice may remove the 
District Judges from one District to another, or 
it may fix their seats in another locality as it may 
deem most advantageous to the public business. A 
similar procedure shall be observed in the case of 
Circuit Judges. 

The Supreme Court of Justice may likewise appoint 
auxiliary Circuit and District Judges to assist in the 
labors of such Courts as have an excessive amount of 
business in order that the administration of justice 
may be speedy; it shall also name one or more of its 
members or some District or Circuit Judge or shall 
designate one or more special commissioners when¬ 
ever it shall deem it advisable or on the request 
of the President or of either House or of any State 
Governor, solely for the purpose of inquiring into 
the behavior of any Judge or Federal Justice or into 
any fact or facts which amount to a violation of any 
individual rights or to the subversion of the popular 
will or any other . offense punishable by Federal 
Statute. 

The Circuit and District Courts shall be assigned 
among the several Justices of the Supreme Court 
who shall visit them periodically, shall observe the 
conduct of their Judges, listen to any complaint 
presented against them and perform all such other 
acts as the law may require. The Supreme Court 
shall appoint and remove at will its Clerk of the 
Court and other employees on the roster established 
by law. The Circuit and District Judges shall like¬ 
wise appoint and remove at will their respective clerks 
and employees. 

The Supreme Court shall choose each year one 
of its members to act as Chief Justice, with the 
right of re-election. 


Each Justice of the Supreme Court on assuming 
office shall make an affirmation before Congress, or 
if this is in recess, before the Permanent Committee, 
as follows: 

The Presiding Officer shall say: “Do you promise 
to perform faithfully and conscienciously the duties 
of Justice of the Supreme Court with which you 
have been charged, and to defend and enforce the 
Constitution of the United States of Mexico and 
the laws arising thereunder, having ever in mind 
the welfare and prosperity of the Nation?” To 
which the Justice shall reply, “I do.” On which 
the Presiding Officer shall answer: “If you fail to do 
so, may the Nation call you to account.” 

The Circuit and District Judges shall make the 
affirmation of office before the Supreme Court or 
before such other authority as the law may deter¬ 
mine. 

Art. 98—No temporary disability of a Justice of the 
Supreme Court not exceeding one month shall be filled, 
provided there be otherwise a quorum. In the absence 
of a quorum the Congress, or in its recess the Per¬ 
manent Committee, shall name a substitute selected 
from among the candidates submitted by the States 
for the election of the Justice in question and not 
chosen, to serve during such disability. If the dis¬ 
ability do not exceed two months, the Congress, or 
during its recess the Permanent Committee shall 
choose at will a temporary Justice. 

In the event of the death, resignation or dis¬ 
qualification of any Justice of the Supreme Court 
a new election shall be held by the Congress to fill 
this vacancy as provided in Article 96. 

If the Congress shall not be in session, the Per¬ 
manent Committee shall make a temporary appoint¬ 
ment until such time as the Congress shall convene 
and proceed to the corresponding election. 

Art. 99—The resignation of a Justice of the 
Supreme Court shall be only accepted for grave cause 
to be passed upon by the Congress, to whom the 
resignation shall be tendered. If the Congress is in 
recess the power to act in this matter shall pertain 
to the Permanent Committee. 

Art. 100—The Supreme Court shall grant all 
leaves of absence of its members when they do not 
exceed one month; such as do exceed this period 
shall be granted by the House of Representatives or 
during its recess by the Permanent Committee. 

Art. 101—No Justice of the Supreme Court, Circuit 
or District Judge, nor Clerk of any of these Courts 
shall under any circumstances accept any State, Fed¬ 
eral or private commission or office, excepting hon¬ 
orary titles from scientific, literary or charitable 
associations. The violation of this provision shall 
work a forfeiture of office. 

Art. 102—The office of the Public Attorney shall 
be organized in accordance with the law, and the 
Public Attorneys shall be appointed and removed 
at will by the Executive. They shall be under the 
direction of an Attorney General who shall possess 
the same qualifications as are required for the office 
of Justice of the Supreme Court. 

The Public Attorneys shall be charged with the 
judicial prosecution of all Federal offenses; they shall 
accordingly sue out all orders of arrest, assemble and 
offer all evidence as to the responsibility of the 

accused, see that the trials are conducted in due 
order so that the administration of justice may be 
speedy, pray the imposition of sentence, and in 
general take part in all matters required by law. 

The Attorney General of the Republic shall person¬ 
ally intervene in matters to which the Federal Gov¬ 
ernment is a party, in cases affecting ministers, 

diplomatic agents and consuls general, and in all 
controversies between two or more States of the 

Union, between the Federal Government and a State 
or between the several powers of a State. . The 
Attorney General may either personally or through 
one of the Public Attorneys take part in all other 
cases in which the Public Attorneys are called upon 
to act. 

The Attorney General shall be the legal advisor of 
the Government, and both he and the Public At¬ 

torneys under his orders shall faithfully obey the law 
and shall be liable for all breaches or for any viola¬ 
tions in'which they may incur in the discharge of 
their duties. 

Art. 103—The Federal Tribunals shall take cogni¬ 
zance of: 

I—All controversies arising out of laws or acts 
of the authorities when the latter infringe any individ¬ 
ual rights. 


THE MEXICAN REVIEW 


11 


II— All controversies arising out of laws or acts 
of the Federal authorities which limit or encroach 
upon the sovereignty of the States. 

III— All controversies arising out of laws or acts 
of the State authorities which invade the sphere 
of the Federal authorities. 

Art. 104—The Federal Tribunals shall have juris¬ 
diction over: 

I— All controversies of a civil or criminal nature 
arising out of the application and enforcement of 
the Federal laws, or out of treaties concluded with 
foreign powers. Whenever such controversies affect 
only private rights, the regular local courts of the 
States, the Federal District and Territories shall, 
at the election of the plaintiff, assume juris¬ 
diction. Appeal may be had from all judgments 
of first instance to the next higher tribunal of the 
same Court in which the case was first heard. Appeal 
may be taken from sentences of second instance to 
the Supreme Court of Justice, which appeal shall 
be prepared, submitted and prosecuted, in accordance 
with the procedure prsvided by law. 

II— All cases pertaining to admiralty law. 

III— All cases to which the Federal Government 
may be a party. 

IV— All cases arising between two or more States, 
or between any State and the Federal Govern¬ 
ment, as well those arising between the courts of 
the Federal District and those of the Federal Gov¬ 
ernment or of a State. 

V— All cases arising between a State and one or 
more citizens of another State. 

VI— All cases concerning diplomatic agents and 
consular officers. 

Art. 105 —The Supreme Court of Justice shall have 
exclusive jurisdiction in all controversies arising 
between two or more States, between the powers of 
government of any State as to the constitutionality of 
their acts, or between one or more States and the 
Federal Government, and in all cases to which the 
Federal Government may be a party. 

Art. 106 —The Supreme Court of Justice shall 
likewise have exclusive jurisdiction to determine all 
questions of jurisdiction between the Federal Tribun¬ 
als, between these and those of the States, or be¬ 
tween those of one State and those of another. 

Art. 107 —All controversies mentioned in Article 
103 shall be prosecuted by the injured party in 
accordance with the judicial forms and procedure 
which the law shall establish, subject to the fol¬ 
lowing conditions: 

I—The judgment shall always be so drawn as to 
affect exclusively private individuals, and shall con¬ 
fine itself to affording them protection in the special 
case to which the complaint refers; but it shall 
make no general statement as to the law or the act 
that may have formed the basis for the complaint. 

IT—In civil or penal suits, excepting those men¬ 
tioned in Clause IX hereof, the writ of “amparo”* 
shall issue only against final judgments when no 
other ordinary recourse is available by which these 
judgments may be modified or amended, if the 
violation of the law shall have occurred in the 
judgment, or if, although committed during the 
course of the trial, objection was duly noted and pro¬ 
test entered against the denial of reparation, and pro¬ 
vided further that if committed in first instance it shall 
have been invoked in second instance as a violation 
of the law. 

When the writ of “amparo” is sought against 
mesne judgments, in accordance with the provisions 
of the foregoing clause, these rules shall be observed, 
as far as applicable. 

Notwithstanding the foregoing provision, the 
Supreme Court may in penal cases waive any defects 
in the petition when there has been a manifest 
violation of the law which has left the petitioner 
without recourse, or when he has been tried by a 
law not strictly applicable to the case, provided 


* This unique feature of Mexican law combines 
the essential elements of the extraordinary writs of 
habeas corpus, certiorari and mandamus. It is a Federal 
procedure designed to give immediate protection when 
any of the fundamental rights of man are infringed 
by any authority, irrespective of category, or to 
excuse the obedience of a law or decree which has 
invaded the Federal or local sphere. Its use is most 
extensive, embracing minors, persons absent abroad 
acting through a “next friend,” corporations, etc. An 
important feature is that it merely gives protection 
to a specific person or entity, and never makes any 
general statement of law. It could, hence, never 
declare a law unconstitutional, though it wijuld give 
immediate protection as soon as the law ini question 
acted on any person. /'H. 


failure to take advantage of this violation has been 
merely an oversight. 

III— In civil or penal suits the writ of “amparo” 
shall issue only if substantial portions of the rules 
of procedure have been violated, and provided further 
that the said violation shall deprive the petitioner of 
means of defense. 

IV— In addition to the case mentioned in the 
foregoing paragraph, the writ of “amparo” shall 
issue only on a final judgment in a civil suit,— 
provided the requirements set forth in Clause II 
hereof have been complied with,—when the said 
judgment shall be contrary to the letter of the law 
applicable to the case or contrary to its legal inter¬ 
pretation, when it includes persons, actions, defenses, 
or things which have not been the object of the 
suit, or finally when all these have not been included 
either through omission or express refusal. 

V— In penal suits, the authorities responsible for 
the violation shall stay the execution of final judg¬ 
ment against which the writ of “amparo” has been 
sought; for this purpose the petitioner shall, within 
the period set by law, give notice, under oath, to 
the said authorities of the interposition of this recourse, 
accompanying it with two copies of the petition, one 
of which shall be delivered to the opposing party 
and the other filed. 

VI— The execution of a final judgment in civil 
suits shall only be stayed when the petitioner shall 
give bond to cover damages occasioned thereby, 
unless the other party shall give a counter bond 
(1) to guarantee that the normal conditions and 
relations previously existing be restored, and (2) 
to pay the corresponding damages, in the event 
of the granting of the “amparo.” In such event 
the interposition of the recourse of “amparo” shall 
be communicated as provided in the foregoing clause. 

VII— If a writ of “amparo” be sought against 
a final judgment, a certified copy of such portions 
of the record as the petitioner may desire shall be 
requested from the authority responsible for the 
violation; to this there shall be added such por¬ 
tions as the other party may desire and a clear 
and succinct statement by the said authority of the 
justification of the act protested; note shall be made 
of this on the record. 

VIII — When a writ of “amparo” is sought against 
a final judgment, the petition shall be brought be¬ 
fore the Supreme Court; this petition, together with 
a copy required by Clause VII, shall be either 
presented to the Supreme Court or sent through the 
authority responsible for the violation or through 
the District Court of the corresponding State. The 
Supreme Court shall render judgment without any 
other formality or procedure than the petition, the 
document presented by the other party and that of the 
Attorney General or the Public Attorney he may 
name in his stead, and shall comprise no other legal 
question than that contained in the complaint. 

IX— When the acts of an authority other than the 

judicial are involved or the acts of the judiciary 
exercised outside of the suit or after the termina¬ 
tion thereof, or acts committed during the suit whose 
execution is of impossible reparation, or which affect 
persons not parties to the suit, the writ of “amparo” 
shall be sought before the District Court within whose 
jurisdiction is located the place where the act pro¬ 
tested was committed or attempted; the procedure 

in this case shall be confined to the report of the 
authority and to a hearing, the call for which shall 
be issued in the same order of the court as that 
calling for the report. This hearing shall be held 
at as early a date as possible, the testimony of both 
parties offered, arguments heard which shall not 
exceed one hour for each side, and finally the 
judgment which shall be pronounced at the same 

hearing. The judgment of the District Court shall 
be final if the interested parties do not appeal ter 

the Supreme Court within the period set by law and in 
the manner prescribed by Clause VIII. 

In case of a violation of the guarantees of Articles 
16 , 19 and 20 , recourse shall be had through the 
Appellate Court of the Court committing the breach 
or to the corresponding District Court. An appeal 
against the decision of any of these Courts may be 
taken to the Supreme Court. 

If the District Judge shall not reside in the same 
locality as the official guilty of the violation, the Judge 
before whom the petition of “amparo” shall be 
submitted shall be determined by law; this Judge shall 
be authorized to suspend temporarily the execution of 
the act protested, in accordance with the terms 
established by law. 


X— Any official failing to suspend the execution 
of the act protested, when in duty bound to do so, 
or when he admits an insufficient or improper bond, 
shall be turned over to the proper authorities; the 
civil and penal liability of the official shall in these 
cases be a joint liability with the person offering 
the bond and his surety. 

XI— If after the granting of an “amparo,” the 
guilty official shall persist in the act or acts against 
which the petition of “amparo” was filed, or shall 
seek to render of no effect the judgment of the 
Federal authority, he shall be forthwith removed from 
office and turned over for trial to the corresponding 
District Court. 

XII— Wardens and jailers who fail to receive a 
duly certified copy of the formal order of commit¬ 
ment within the seventy-two hours granted by Article 
19 , reckoned from the time the accused is placed 
at the disposal of the Court, shall bring this fact 
to the attention of the Court, immediately upon 
expiration of this period; and if the proper order 
be not received within the next three hours the 
accused shall be set at liberty. 

Any official who shall violate this provision and 
the Article referred to in the foregoing paragraph 
shall be immediately turned over to the proper 
authorities. Any official or agent thereof who, after 
an arrest has been made, shall fail to place the 
accused at the disposition of the Court within the 
next twenty-four hours shall himself be turned over 
to the proper authority. 

If the detention be effected outside the locality 
in which the Court is situated, there shall be added 
to the period mentioned in the preceding sentence 
the time necessary to travel from the said locality to 
that where the detention took place. 

TITLE IV 

OF THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF OFFICIALS 

Art. 108 —Senators and Representatives of Con¬ 
gress, Justices of the Supreme Court, Secretaries of 
Executive Departments and the Attorney General 
of the Republic shall be liable for all common offenses 
committed during their term of office, as well as for 
all official offenses or acts of commission or omis¬ 
sion in which they may incur in the discharge of 
their duties. 

Governors of States and Members of State 
Legislatures shall be liable for violation of the 
Constitution and the Federal Laws. 

The President of the Republic may only be im¬ 
peached during his term of office for high treason 
and common offenses of a serious character. 

Art. 109 —If the offense belongs to the common 
order the House of Representatives, acting as a 
grand jury, shall determine by a majority vote of 
its total membership whether there is or is not any 
ground for proceeding against the accused. 

If the finding be favorable to the accused, no 
further action shall be taken; but such finding shall 
not be a bar to the prosecution of the charge so 
soon as the constitutional privilege shall cease, 
since the finding of the House does not in any way 
determine the merits of the charge. 

If the finding be adverse, the accused shall ipso 
facto be removed from office and be placed at the 
disposition of the ordinary courts of justice, except 
in the case of the President of the Republic, who 
may only be impeached before the Senate as in 
the case of an official offense. 

Art. 110 —No constitutional privilege shall be 
extended to any high Federal functionary when 
tried for official offenses, misdemeanors or omis¬ 
sions committed in the discharge of another public 
office or commission, during the time in which the 
privilege is enjoyed by law. This provision shall 
be applicable to cases of common offenses committed 
during the discharge of the said office or commission. 
In order that proceedings may be instituted when 
the functionary shall have returned to his original 
office the provisions set forth in the foregoing article 
shall be observed. 

Art. hi—T he Senate acting as a grand jury shall 
try all cases of impeachment; but it may not institute 
such proceedings without a previous accusation 
brought by the House of Representatives. 

If the Senate should, after hearing the accused and 
conducting such proceedings as it may deem advis¬ 
able, determine by a majority vote of two-thirds of 
its total membership that the accused is guilty, the 
latter shall be forthwith removed from office by 



12 

virtue of such decision, or be disqualified from hold¬ 
ing any other office for such time as the law may 
determine. 

When the same offense is punishable with an 
additional penalty, the accused shall be placed at 
the disposition of the regular authorities who shall 
judge and sentence him in accordance with the law. 

In all cases embraced by this article and in those 
included by the preceding both the decisions of the 
Grand Jury and the findings of the House of Rep¬ 
resentatives shall be final. 

Any person shall have the right to denounce be¬ 
fore the House of Representatives offenses of a 
common order or of an official character committed 
by high Federal functionaries; and whenever the 
said House of Representatives shall determine that 
there exist good grounds for impeachment proceed¬ 
ings before the Senate, it shall name a committee 
from among its own members to sustain the charges 
brought. 

The Congress shall as soon as possible enact a 
law as to the responsibility of all Federal officials 
and employees which shall fix as official offenses 
all acts, of commission or omission, which may 

prejudice the public interest and efficient administra¬ 
tion, even though such acts may not heretofore 

have been considered offenses. These officials shall 
be tried by a jury in the same manner as provided 
for trials by jury in Article 20. 

Art. 112—No pardon shall be granted the offender 
in cases of impeachment. 

Art. 113—The responsibility for official breaches 
and offenses may only be enforced during such 

time as the functionary shall remain in office and 

for one year thereafter. 

Art. 114 —In civil cases no privilege nor immunity 
in favor of any public functionary shall be recognized. 

TITLE V 

OF THE STATES OF THE FEDERATION. 

Art. 115—The States shall adopt for their internal 
administration the popular, representative, republican 
form of government; they shall have as the basis 
of their territorial division and political and adminis¬ 
trative organizaation the free municipality, in accord¬ 
ance with the following provisions: 

I— —Each municipality shall be administered by a 
town council chosen by direct vote of the people, 
and no authority shall intervene between the muni¬ 
cipality and the State Government. 

II— The municipalities shall freely administer their 
own revenues which shall be derived from the taxes 
fixed by the State Legislatures which shall at all 
times be sufficient to meet their needs. 

III— The municipalities shall be regarded as en¬ 
joying corporate existence for all legal purposes. 

The Federal Executive and the State Govern¬ 
ors shall have command over all public forces of 
the municipalities wherein they may permanently or 
temporarily reside. 

Constitutional State Governors shall not be re¬ 
elected, nor shall their term of office exceed four 
years. 

The prohibitions of Article 83 are applicable to 
Governors, and to substitute or ad interim governors. 

The number of Representatives in the State Legisla¬ 
tures shall be in proportion to the inhabitants of 
each State, but in no case shall the number of 
representatives in any State Legislature be less than 
fifteen. 

Each Electoral District of the States shall chose 
a Representative and an alternate to the State Legis¬ 
lature. 

Every State Governor shall be a Mexican citizen 
by birth and a native thereof, or resident therein 
not less than five years immediately prior tb the day 
of election. 

Art. 116—The States shall have the power to fix 
among themselves by friendly agreements their re¬ 
spective boundaries; but these agreements shall not 
be carried into effect without the approval of the 
Congress. 

Art. 117—No State shall— 

I— Enter into alliances, treaties or coalitions with 
another State or with foreign powers. 

II— Grant letters of marque or reprisal. 

III— Coin money, issue paper money, stamps or 
stamped paper. 

IV— Levy taxes on persons or property passing 
through its territory. 

V— Prohibit or tax, directly or indirectly, the 
entry into its territory or the withdrawal therefrom 
of any merchandise, foreign or domestic. 


THE MEXICAN REVIEW 

VI— Burden the circulation or consumption of 
domestic or foreign merchandise with taxes or duties 
to be collected by local custom houses or subject 
to inspection the said merchandise or require it to 
be accompanied by documents. 

VII— Enact or maintain in force laws or fiscal 
regulations discriminating, by taxation or otherwise, 
between merchandise, foreign or domestic, on ac¬ 
count of its origin, whether this discrimination be 
established with regard to similar local products or 
to similar products of foreign origin. 

VIII— Issue bonds of the public debt payable in 
foreign coin or outside the Federal Territory; con¬ 
tract loans, directly or indirectly, with any foreign 
government, or assume any obligation in favor of 
any foreign corporation or individual, requiring 
the issue of certificates or bonds payable to bearer 
or negotiable by endorsement. 

The Federal Congress and the State Legislatures 
shall forthwith enact laws against alcoholism. 

Art. 118—No State shall, without the consent of 
the Congress: 

I— Establish tonnage dues or other port charges, 
or impose taxes or other duties upon imports or 
exports. 

II— Keep at any time permanent troops or vessels 
of war. 

Make war on its own behalf on any foreign power, 
except in cases of invasion or of such imminent peril 
as to admit of no delay. In such event the State 
shall give notice immediately to the President of 
the Republic. 

Art. 119—Every State is bound to deliver without 
delay to the demanding authorities the fugitives from 
justice from other States or from forpign nations. 

In such cases the writ of the Court granting the 
extradition shall operate as a sufficient warrant for 
the detention of the accused for one month, in the 
case of extradition from one State to another, and 
for two months in the case of international extradi¬ 
tion. 

Art. 120—The State Governors are bound to 
publish and enforce the Federal laws. 

Art. 121—Full faith and credit shall be given 
in each State of the Federation to the public acts, 
records and judicial proceedings of all the other 
States. The Congress shall by general laws prescribe 
the manner of proving the said acts, records and 
proceedings and the effect thereof, as hereinafter 
provided. 

I— The laws of a State shall only be binding within 
its own confines, and shall therefore have no extra¬ 
territorial force. 

II— Movable and immovable property shall be gov¬ 
erned by the lex sitae. 

III— Judgments of a State Court as to property and 
property rights situated in another State shall only 
be binding when expressly so provided by the law 
of the latter State. 

Judgments relating to personal rights shall only 
be binding in another State provided the person shall 
have expressly, or impliedly by reason of domicile, 
submitted to the jurisdiction of the Court rendering 
such judgment, and provided further that personal 
service shall have been secured. 

IV— All acts of civil status performed in ac¬ 
cordance with the laws of one State shall be binding 
in all other States. 

V— All professional licenses issued by the authori¬ 
ties of one State in accordance with its laws, shall 
be valid in all other States. 

Art. 122 —The Powers of the Union are bound to 
protect the States against all invasion or external 
violence. In case of insurrection or internal dis¬ 
turbance they shall give them the same protection, 
provided the Legislature of the State, or the Ex¬ 
ecutive thereof if the Legislature is not in session, 
shall so request. 

TITLE VI 

OF LABOR AND SOCIAL WELFARE. 

Art. 123—The Congress and the State Legislatures 
shall make laws relative to labor with due regard 
for the needs of each region of the Republic, and 
in conformity with the following principles, and 
these principles and laws shall govern the labor 
of skilled and unskilled workmen, employees, domestic 
servants and artisans, and in general every contract 
of labor. 

I—Eight hours shall be the maximum limit of a 
day’s work. 


II— The maximum limit of night work shall be 
seven hours. Unhealthy and dangerous occupa¬ 
tions are forbidden to all women and to children 
under sixteen years of age. Night work in factories 
is likewise forbidden to women and to children 
under sixteen years of age; nor shall they be em¬ 
ployed in commercial establishments after ten o’clock 
at night. 

III— The maximum limit of a day’s work for 
children over twelve and under sixteen years of 
age shall be six hours. The work of children 
under twelve years of age cannot be made the object 
of a contract. 

IV— -Every workman shall enjoy at least one day's 
rest for every six days’ work. 

V— Women shall not perform any physical work 
requiring considerable physical effort during the three 
months immediately preceding parturition; during the 
month following parturition they shall necessarily 
enjoy a period of rest and shall receive their salaries 
or wages in full and retain their emploj'ment and the 
rights they may have acquired under their contracts. 
During the period of lactation they shall enjoy two 
extraordinary daily periods of rest of one-half hour 
each in order to nurse their children. 

VI— The minimum wage to be received by a 
workman shall be that considered sufficient, accord¬ 
ing to the conditions prevailing in the respective 
region of the country, to satisfy the normal needs of 
the life of the workman, his education and his 
lawful pleasures, considering him as the head of 
a family. In all agricultural, commercial, manu¬ 
facturing or mining enterprises the workmen 
shall have the right to participate in the profits 
in the manner fixed in Clause IX of this article. 

VII— The same compensation shall be paid for the 
same work without regard to sex or nationality. 

VIII— The minimum wage shall be exempt from 
attachment, set-off or discount. 

IX— The determination of the minimum wage 
and of the rate of profit-sharing described in Clause 
VI shall be made by special commissions to be ap¬ 
pointed in each municipality and to be subordinated 
to the Central Board of Conciliation to be established 
in each State. 

X— All wages shall be paid in legal currency and 
shall not be paid in merchandise, orders, counters or 
any other representative token with tvhich it is 
sought to substitute money. 

XI— When owing to special circumstances it be¬ 
comes necessary to increase the working hours 
there shall be paid as wages for the overtime one 
hundred per cent more than those fixed for regular 
time. In no case shall the overtime exceed three 
hours nor continue for more than three consecutive 
days; and no women of whatever age nor boys under 
sixteen years of age may engage in overtime work. 

XII— In every agricultural, industrial, mining or 
similar class of work employers are bound to furnish 
their workmen comfortable and sanitary dwelling- 
places for which they may charge rents not exceeding 
one-half of one per cent per month of the assessed 
value of the properties. They shall likewise establish 
schools, dispensaries and other services necessary 
to the community. If the factories are located within 
inhabited places and more than one hundred persons 
are employed therein, the first of the above-mentioned 
conditions shall be complied with. 

XIII— Furthermore, there shall be set aside in 
these labor centers, whenever their population ex¬ 
ceeds two hundred inhabitants, a space of land 
not less than five thousand square meters for the 
establishment of public markets, and the construction 
of buildings designed for municipal services and 
places of amusement. No saloons nor gambling 
houses shall be permitted in such labor centers. 

XIV— Employers shall be liable for labor acci¬ 
dents and occupational diseases arising from work; 
therefore, employers shall pay the proper indemnity, 
according to whether death or merely temporary or 
permanent disability has ensued, in accordance with 
the provisions of law. This liability shall remain 
in force even though the employer contract for the 
work through an agent. 

XV— Employers shall be bound to observe in the 
installation of their establishments all the provisions 
of law regarding hygiene and sanitation and to adopt 
adequate measures to prevent accidents due to the use 
of machinery, tools and working materials, as 
well as to organize work in such a manner as 
to assure the greatest guarantees possible for the 
health and lives of workmen compatible with the 


THE MEXICAN REVIEW 


13 


nature of the work, under penalties which the 
law shall determine. 

XVI— Workmen and employers shall have the 
right to unite for the defense of their respective 
interests, by forming syndicates, unions, etc. 

XVII— The law shall recognize the right of work¬ 
men and employers to strike and to suspend work. 

XVIII—Strikes shall be lawful when by the em¬ 
ployment of peaceful means they shall aim to bring 
about a balance between the various factors of pro¬ 
duction, and to harmonize the rights of capital and 
labor. In public services, the workmen shall be 
obliged to give notice ten days in advance to the 
Board of Conciliation and Arbtration of the date 
set for the suspension of work. Strikes shall only 
be considered unlawful when the majority of the 
strikers shall resort to acts of violence against per¬ 
sons or property, or in case of war when the 
strikers belong to establishments and services de¬ 
pendent on the government. Employees of military 
manufacturing establishments of the Federal Gov¬ 
ernment shall not be included in the provisions of 
this clause inasmuch as they are a dependency 
of the national army. 

XIX— Lockouts shall only be lawful when 
the excess of production shall render it neces¬ 
sary to shut down in order to maintain prices 
reasonably above the cost of production, subject to 
the approval of the Board of Conciliation and Arbi¬ 
tration. 

XX— Differences or disputes between capital and 
labor shall be submitted for settlement to a board 
of conciliation and arbitration to consist of an 
equal number of representatives of the workmen and 
of the employers and of one representative of the 
Government. 

XXI— If the employer shall refuse to submit his 
differences to arbitration or to accept the award 
rendered by the Board the labor contract shall be 
considered as terminated, and the employer shall 
be bound to indemnify the workman by the pay¬ 
ment to him of three months’ wages, in addition 
to the liability whch he may have incurred by reason 
of the dispute. If the workman reject the award 
the contract will be held to have terminated. 

XXII— An employer who discharges a workman 
without proper cause or for having joined a union 
or syndicate or for having taken part in a lawful 
strike shall be bound, at the option of the work¬ 
man, either to perform the contract or to indemnify 
him by the payment of three months’ wages. He 
shall incur the same liability if the workman shall 
leave his service on account of the lack of good 
faith on the part of the employer or of maltreat¬ 
ment either as to his own person or that of his 
wife, parents, children or brothers or sisters. The 
employer cannot evade this liability when the mal¬ 
treatment is inflioted by subordinates or agents 
acting with his consent or knowledge. 

XXIII—Claims of workmen for salaries or wages 
accrued during the past year and other indemnity 
claims shall be preferred over any other claims in 
cases of bankruptcy or execution proceedings. 

XXIV— Debts contracted by workmen in favor of 
their employers or their employers’ associates, subor¬ 
dinates or agents, may only be charged against the 
workmen themselves and in no case and for no 
reason collected from the members of his family. 
Nor shall such debts be paid by the taking of more 
than the entire wages of the workman for any one 
month. 

XXV— No fee shall be charged for finding work 
for workmen by municipal offices, employment 
bureaus or other public or private agencies. 

XXVI— Every contract between a Mexican citi¬ 
zen and a foreign principal shall be legalized be¬ 
fore the competent municipal authority and viseed 
by the Consul of the nation to which the work¬ 
man is undertaking to go, on the understanding 
that in addition to the usual clauses special and 
clear provisions shall be inserted for the payment 
by the foreign principal making the contract of the 
cost to the laborer of repatriation. 

XXVII—The following stipulations shall be null 
and void and shall not bind the contracting parties, 
even though embodied in the contract: 

(a) Stipulations providing for inhuman day’s work 
on account of its notorious excessiveness, in view 
of the nature of the work. 

(b) Stipulations providing for a wage rate which in 

the judgment of the Board of Conciliation andi'Arbi- 
tration is not remunerative. J 


(c) Stipulations providing for a term of more 
than one week before the payment of wages. 

(d) Stipulations providing for the assigning of 
places of amusement, eating places, cafes, taverns, 
saloons or shops for the payment of wages, when 
employees of such establishments are not involved. 

(e) Stipulations involving a direct or indirect obli¬ 
gation to purchase articles of consumption in specified 
shops or places. 

(f) Stipulations permitting the retention of wages 
by way of fines. 

(g) Stipulations constituting a waiver on the part 
of the workman of the indemnities to which he may 
become entitled by reason of labor accidents or 
occupational diseases, damages for nonperformance 
of the contract, or for discharge from work. 

(h) All other stipulations implying the waiver 
of some right vested in the workman by labor laws. 

XXVIII—The law shall decide what property con¬ 
stitutes the family estate. These goods shall be in¬ 
alienable and may not be mortgaged, garnished 
or attached and may be bequeathed and inherited 
with simplified formalities in the succession pro¬ 
ceedings. 

XXIX— Institutions of popular insurance established 
for old age, sickness, life, unemployment, accident 
and others of a similar character, are cpnsidered of 
social utility; the Federal and State Governments 
shall therefore encourage the organization of institu¬ 
tions of this character in order to instill and inculcate 
popular habits of thrift. 

XXX— Cooperative associations for the construc¬ 
tion of cheap and sanitarj dwelling houses for 
workmen shall likewise be considered of social utility 
whenever these properties are designed to be acquired 
in ownership by the workmen within specified periods. 

TITLE VII 

OF GENERAL PROVISIONS 

Article 124—All powers not expressly vested by 
this Constitution in the Federal authorities are 
understood to be reserved to the States. 

Art. 125—No person shall hold at the same time 
two Federal offices or one Federal and one State 
elective office; if elected to two, he shall choose 
between them. 

Art. 126—No payment shall be made which is not 
included in the Budget or authorized by a law 
subsequent to the same. 

Art. 127—The President of t-he Republic, the 
Justices of the Supreme Court, Representatives and 
Senators and other public officials of the Federation 
who are chosen by popular election shall receive a 
compensation for their services which shall be paid 
by the Federal Treasury and determined by law. 
This compensation may not be waived, and any 
law increasing or decreasing it shall have no effect 
during the period for which the functionary holds 
office. 

Art. 128—Every public official, without exception, 
shall, before entering on the discharge of his duties, 
make an affirmation to maintain this constitution 
and the laws arising thereunder. 

Art. 129—In time of peace no military authorities 
shall exercise other functions than those bearing 
direct relation to military discipline. No fixed and 
permanent military posts shall be established other 
than in castles, forts and arsenals depending directly 
upon the Federal Government, or in camps, bar¬ 
racks, or depots, established outside of inhabited 
places for the stationing of troops. 

Art. 130—The Federal authorities shall have ex¬ 
clusive power to exercise in matters of religious 
worship- and outward ecclesiastical forms, such in¬ 
tervention as by law authorized. All other officials 
shall act as auxiliaries to the Federal authorities. 

The Congress shall not enact any law estab¬ 
lishing or forbidding any religion whatsoever. 

Marriage is a civil contract. Marriage and all 
other acts relating to the civil status of individuals 
shall appertain to the exclusive jurisdiction of the 
civil authorities in the manner and form by law 
provided, and they shall have the force and validity 
given them by said laws. 

A simple promise to tell the truth and to com¬ 
ply with obligations contracted shall subject the 
promisor, in the event of a breach, to the penalties 
established therefor by law. 

The law recognizes no corporate existence in the 
religious associations known as churches. 

The Ministers of religious creeds shall be con¬ 


sidered as persons exercising a profession and shall 
be directly subject to the laws enacted on the 
subject. 

The State Legislatures shall have the exclusive 
power of determining the maximum number of 
ministers of religious creeds according to the needs 
of each locality. Only a Mexican by birth may 
be a minister of any religious creed in Mexico. 

No ministers of religious creeds shall, either in 
public or private meetings, or in acts of 
worship or religious propaganda, criticise the 
fundamental laws of the country, the authorities in 
particular or the Government in general; they shall 
have no vote, nor be eligible to office, nor shall 
they be entitled to assemble for political purposes. 

Before dedicating new temples of worship for 
public use, permission shall be obtained from the 
Department of the Interior (Gobernacion) ; the 
opinion of the respective Governor of the State shall 
be previously heard on the subject. Every place of 
worship shall have a person charged with its care 
and maintenance, who shall be legally responsible 
for the faithful performance of the laws on re¬ 
ligious observances within the said place % of wor¬ 
ship, and for all the objects used for purposes of 
worship. 

The caretaker of each place of public worship, to¬ 
gether with ten citizens of the place, shall promptly 
advise' the municipal authorities as to the person 
charged with the care of the said place of worship. 
The outgoing minister shall in every instance give 
notice of any change, for which purpose he shall 
be accompanied by the incoming minister and ten 
other citizens of the place. The municipal author¬ 
ities under penalty of dismissal and fine, not ex¬ 
ceeding 1,000 pesos for each breach, shall be re¬ 
sponsible for the exact performance of this pro¬ 
vision ; they shall keep a register of the places of 
worship and another of the caretakers thereof, sub¬ 
ject to the same penalty as above provided. The 
municipal authorities shall likewise give notice to 
the Department of the Interior through the inter¬ 
mediary of the State Governor, of any permission 
to open to the public use a new place of worship, 
as well as of any change in the caretakers. Gifts of 
personalty may be received in the interior of places 
of public worship. 

Under no conditions shall studies carried on in 
institutions devoted to the professional training of 
ministers of religious creeds be ratified or be granted 
any other dispensation of privilege which shall have 
for its purpose the ratification of the said studies 
in official institutions. Any authority violating this 
provision shall be punished criminally and all such 
dispensation of privilege be null and void, and 
shall invalidate wholly and entirely the professional 
degree toward the obtaining of which the infrac¬ 
tion of this provision may in any way have con¬ 
tributed. 

No periodical publication which either by reason of 
its program, its title or merely by its general ten¬ 
dencies, is of a religious character, shall comment 
upon any political affairs of the nation, nor publish 
any information regarding the acts of the authori¬ 
ties of the country or of private individuals insofar 
as the latter have to do with public affairs. 

Every kind of political association whose name 
shall bear any word or any indication relating to 
any religious belief is hereby strictly forbidden. No 
assemblies of any political character shall be held 
within places of public worship. 

No minister of any religious creed may inherit 
either on his own behalf or by means of a trustee 
or otherwise, any real property occupied by any 
association of religious propaganda or religious or 
charitable purposes. Ministers of religious creeds 
are incapable legally of inheriting by will from 
ministers of the same religious sect or from any 
private individual to whom they are not related by 
blood within the fourth degree. 

All real and personal property pertaining to the 
clergy or to religious institutions shall be gov¬ 
erned, insofar as their acquisition by private parties 
is concerned, in conformity with Article 27 of this 
Constitution. 

No trial by jury shall ever be granted for the 
infraction of any of the preceding provisions. 

Art. 131—The Federal Government shall have 
exclusive "power to levy duties on merchandise im¬ 
ported, exported or passing in transit through the 
national Territory as well as to regulate at all 
times, and if necessary to forbid, for the sake of 


14 

public safety or for police reasons, the circulation 
in the interior of the Republic of all kinds of goods, 
regardless of their origin; but the Federal Gov¬ 
ernment shall have no power to establish or de¬ 
cree in the Federal District and Federal Territories 
the taxes and laws to which Clauses VI and VII of 
Article 117 refer. 

Art. 132—All forts, barracks, warehouses, and 
other real property, destined by the Federal Gov¬ 
ernment for public service or common use shall be 
under the jurisdiction of the Federal authorities in 
accordance with the law which the Congress shall 
issue on the subject; any of these establishments 
which may subsequently be acquired within the ter¬ 
ritory of any State shall likewise be subject to 
Federal jurisdiction, provided consent thereto shall 
have been obtained from the respective State Legis¬ 
lature. 

Art. 133—This Constitution and the laws of the 
United States of Mexico which shall be made in pur¬ 
suance thereof and all treaties made or which shall 
be made under the authority of the President of the 
Republic, by and with the approval and consent of 
the Congress, shall be the supreme law of the 
land. And the Judges in every State shall be 
bound by this Constitution and by these laws and 
treaties, anything in the Constitution or laws of 
any State to the contrary notwithstanding. 

Art. 134—Bids shall be called for on all con¬ 
tracts which the Government may have occasion 
to enter into for the execution of any public works; 
these bids shall be submitted under seal and shall 
only be opened publicly. 

TITLE VIII 

OF THE AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION 

Article 135—The present Constitution may be 
added to or amended. No amendment or addition 
shall become part of the Constitution until agreed 
to by the Congress of the Union by a two-thirds vote 
of the Members present and approved by a ma¬ 
jority of the State Legislatures. The Congress shall 
count the votes of the Legislatures and make the 
declaration that the amendments or additions have 
been adopted. 

TITLE IX 

OF THE INVIOLABILITY OF THE CONSTITUTION 

Article 136—This Constitution shall not lose its 
force and vigor even though its observance be 
interrupted by rebellion. In case that through 
any public disturbance a Government contrary to 
the principles which it sanctions be established, its 
force shall be restored so soon as the people shall 
regain their liberty and those who have participated 
in the Government emanating from the rebellion or 
have cooperated with it shall be tried in accordance 
with its provisions and with the laws arising 
under it. 

TRANSITORY ARTICLES 

Article 1—This Constitution shall be published at 
once and a solemn oath taken to defend and en¬ 
force it throughout the Republic; but its provisions, 
except those relating to the election of the supreme 
powers, Federal and State, shall not go into effect 
until the first day of May, 1917, at which time the Con¬ 
stitutional Congress shall be solemnly convened and 
the oath of office taken by the citizen chosen at the 
forthcoming elections to discharge the duties of Presi¬ 
dent of the Republic. 

The provisions of Clause V of Article 82 shall not 
be applicable in the elections to be summoned in 
accordance with Article 2 of the Transitory Articles 
nor shall active service in the army act as a dis¬ 
qualification for the office of Representative or 
Senator, provided the candidate shall not have 
active command of troops in the respective electoral 
district. 

Nor shall the ' Secretaries and Assistant Secre¬ 
taries of Executive Departments be disqualified from 
election to the next Federal Congress, provided they 
shall definitively resign from office on the day on 
which the respective call is issued. 

Article 2—The person charged with the executive 
power of the Nation shall immediately upon the 


THE MEXICAN REVIEW 

publication of this Constitution call for elections to 
fill the Federal offices; he shall see that these elec¬ 
tions be held so that Congress may be constituted 
within a reasonable time, in order that it may 
count the cast in the presidential elections and 
make known the name of the person who has been 
elected President of the Republic, this shall be done 
in order that the provisions of the foregoing article 
may be complied with. 

Article 3—The next constitutional term shall be com¬ 
puted in the case of Senators and Representatives, 
from the first of September last, and in the case 
of the President of the Republic from the first of 
December, 1916. 

Article 4—Senators who in the coming election 
shall be classified as “even” shall serve only two 
years in order that the Senate may be renewed by 
half every two years. 

Article 5—The Congress shall in the month of 
M y next choose the Justices of the Supreme Court 
in order that this Tribunal may be constituted on 
the first day of June, 1917. 

In these elections Article 96 shall not govern in 
so far as the candidates proposed by the State Legis¬ 
latures are concerned; but those chosen shall be 
designated for the first term of two years prescribed 
by Article 94. 

Article 6—The Congress shall meet in extraordi¬ 
nary session on the fifteenth day of April, 1917, to act 
as an electoral college, for the computing of the 
ballots and the determination of the election of 
President of the Republic, at which time it shall 
make known the results; it shall likewise enact the 
organic law of the Circuit and District Courts, the 
organic law of the Tribunals of the Federal District 
and Territories, in order that the Supreme Court 
of Justice may immediately appoint the Inferior and 
Superior District and Circuit Judges; at the same 
session the Congress shall choose the Superior 
Judges and Judges of First Instance of the Federal 
District and Territories, and shall also enact all 
laws submitted by the Executive. The Circuit and 
District Judges and the Superior and Inferior Judges 
of the Federal District and Territories shall take 
office not later than the first day of July, 1917, at 
which time such as shall have been temporarily ap¬ 
pointed by the person now charged with the Ex¬ 
ecutive power of the nation shall cease to act. 

Art. 7—For this occasion only the votes for the 
office of Senator shall be counted by the Board of 
the First Electoral District of each State or of the 
Federal District which shall be instituted for the 
counting of the votes of Representatives. This 
Board shall issue the respective credentials to the 
Senators-elect. 

Art. 8—The Supreme Court shall decide all pend¬ 
ing petitions of “amparo” in accordance with the 
laws at present in force. 

Art. 9—The First Chief of the Constitutionalist 
Army, charged with the executive power of the 
Nation, is hereby authorized to issue the electoral 
law according to which on this occasion the elec¬ 
tions to fill the various Federal offices shall be held. 

Art. 10—All persons who shall have taken part 
in the Government emanating from the rebellion 
against the legitimate government of the Republic, 
or who may have given aid fo the said rebellion and 
later taken up arms or held any office or commis¬ 
sion of the factions, which have opposed the consti¬ 
tutionalist government, shall be tried in accordance 
with the laws at present in force, provided they shall 
not have been previously pardoned by the said 
constitutionalist government. 

Art. 11—Until such time as the Congress of the 
Union and the State Legislatures shall legislate on 
the agrarian and labor problems, the bases estab¬ 
lished by this Constitution for the said laws shall 
be put into force throughout the Republic. 

Art. 12—All Mexicans who shall have fought in 
the ranks of the constitutionalist army and their 
children and widows and all other persons who 
shall have rendered service to the cause of the 
revolution, or to public instruction, shall be pre¬ 
ferred in the acquisition of lots to which Article 27 
refers, and shall be entitled to such rebates as the 
law shall determine. 

Art. 13—All debts contracted by working men 
on account of work up to the date of this Consti¬ 
tution with masters, their subordinates and agents 
are hereby declared wholly and entirely extin¬ 
guished. 


Art. 14—The Departments of Justice and of Public 
Instruction and Fine Arts are hereby abolished. 

Art. 15—The citizen at present charged with the 
executive power is hereby authorized to issue the 
law of civil responsibility applicable to all pro¬ 
moters, accomplices and abettors of the offenses com¬ 
mitted against the constitutional order in the month 
of February, 1913, and against the Constitutionalist 
Government. 

Art. 16—The Constitutional Congress in the regular 
period of sessions, which will begin on the first day 
of September of the present year, shall issue all the 
organic laws of the Constitution which may not 
have been already issued in the extraordinary ses¬ 
sion to which Transitory Article number 6 refers; 
and it shall give preference to the laws relating to 
the rights of man and to Articles 30, 32, 33, 35, 36, 
38, 107 and the latter part of Article 111 of this 
Constitution. 

(Signed) 

President—Luis Manuel Rojas. 

First Vice-President—General of Division C. 

Aguilar. 

Second Vice-President—General of Brigade Sal¬ 
vador Gonzales Torres. 

DEPUTIES 

Aguascalientes—Daniel Cervantes. 

Baja California—Ignacio Roel. 

Coahuila—M. Aguirre Berlanga, Jose M. Rodrigues, 
J. E. von Versen, Manuel Cepeda M., Jose Rod¬ 
riguez (alternate). 

Colima—J. Ramirez Villarreal. 

Chiapas—Enrique Suarez, Lisandro Lopez, Cristobal 
LI. y Castillo, Daniel N. Zepeda, J. Amilcar Vidal. 
Chihuahua—M. Prieto. 

Distrito Federal—Gen. I. L. Pesqueira, Lauro Lopez 
Guerra, Gerzayn Ugarte, Amador Lozano, Felix F. 
Palavicini, C. Duplan, Rafael R. de los Rios, Ar- 
nulfo Silva, A. Norzagaray, Ciro B. Ceballos, 
Alfonso Herrera, R. Rosas y Reyes (alternate), 
Lie. Francisco Espinosa (alternate). 

Durango—Silvestre Dorador, Lie. Rafael Espeleta, An¬ 
tonio Gutierrez, Dr. Fernando Gomez Palaqio, 
Alberto Terrones B., Jesus de la Torre. 
Guanajuato—Gen. Lie. Ramon Frausto, Eng. Vicente 
M. Valtierra, Jose N. Macias, David Penaflor, Jose 
Villasenor, Santiago Manrique, Lie. Hilario Medina, 
M. G. Aranda, Enrique Colunga, Eng. Ignacio 
Lopez, Dr. J. Diaz Barriga, Nicolas Cano, Lieu¬ 
tenant-Colonel Gilberto M. Navarro, Luis Fernandez 
M., Eng. Carlos Ramirez Llaca. 

Guerrero—Fidel Jimenez, Fid. Guillen, Francisco 
Figueroa. 

Hidalgo—Antonio Guerrero, Leopoldo Ruiz, Lie. Al¬ 
berto M. Gonzales, Raf. Vega Sanchez, Alfonso 
Cravioto, Matias Rodriguez, Ismael Pintado San¬ 
chez, Lie. Refugio M. Mercado, Alfonso Mayorga. 
Jalisco—M. Davalos, Federico E. Ibarra, Manuel Da- 
valos Ornelas, Francisco Martin del Campo, B. Mo¬ 
reno, G. Bolados N., Juan de Dios Robledo, Ramon 
Castaneda y Castaneda, Jorge Villasenor, Gen. 
Amado Aguirre, Jose I. Solorzano, Francisco La- 
bastida Izquierdo, J. Ramos, Praslow, Lieutenant 
Colonel Jose Manzano, J. Aguirre Berlanga, Briga¬ 
dier Esteban B. Calderon, P. Machorro y Narvaez 
and Coronel Sebastian Allende J. 

Mexico—Aldegundo Villasenor F. Moreno, E. O’Farril. 
Guillermo Ordarica, Jose Romero, A. Aguilar, Juan 
Manuel Giffard, Manuel A. Hernandez, E. A. Enri 
quez, Donato Bravo Izquierdo, Ruben Marti. 
Michoacan—J. Ruiz, Alberto Peralta, Cayetano An¬ 
drade, Uriel Aviles, G. R. Cervera, O. Lopez Couto. 
S. Alcazar R., M. Martinez Solorzano, Martin 
Castrejon, Lie. Alberto Alvarado, Jose Alvarez. 
Rafael Marquez, J. Silva Herrera, Amadeo Betan¬ 
court, Francisco Mujica, Jesus Romero Flores. 
Morelos—Antonio Garza Zambrano, Jose L. Gomez 
and Alvaro L. Alcazar. 

Nuevo Leon—Manuel Amaya, Niceforo Zambrano, 
Luis Hizaliturri, Col. Ramon Gamez, Reynaldo 
Garza, Plutarco Gonzalez. 

Oaxaca—Juan Sanchez, Leopoldo Payan, Lie. Manuel 
Cabrera, Col. Jose F. Gomez and Luis Espinosa.' 
Puebla—Dr. Salvador R. Guzman, Lie. Rafael P. 
Canete, M. Rosales, Gabriel Rojano, Lie. D. Pas¬ 
trana J., Froylan C. Manjarrez, Lieutenant-Colonel 
/ ntonio de la Barrera, Mayor Jose Rivera. Col. 
Epigmenio A. Martinez, Pastor Rouaix, Colonel 
of Engineers, Luis T. Navarro, Lieutenant-Colonel 


Federico Dinorin, Gen. Gabino Bandera Malo, Col. 
1’orfirio del Castillo, Col. Dr. Gilberto de la Fuente, 
Alfonso Cabrera, J. Verastegui. 

Queretaro—Juan N. Frias and E. Perusquia. 

San Luis Potosi—S. M. Santos, Dr. Arturo Mendez, 
Rafael Martinez Mendoza, Rafael Nieto, Dionisio 
Zavala, G. A. Tello, Rafael Curiel, Cosme Davila 
(alternate). 

Sinaloa—Pedro R. Zavala, A. Magallon, C. M. Ez- 
querro, C. Aviles, Emiliano C. Garcia. 

Sonora—L. G. Monzon, Ramon Ross. 

Tabasco—Lie. Rafael Martinez de Escobar, Santiago 
Ocompo C., and C. Sanchez Magallanes. 
Tamaulipas—Pedro A. Chapa, Zef. Fajardo, Emiliano 
Prospero Nafarrate, F. de Leija. 

Tepic—Lieutenant-Colonel C. Liman, Major Marcelino 
Cedano, Juan Espinosa Bavara. 

Tlaxcala—Antonio Hidalgo, Ascencion Tepal and Mo¬ 
desto Gonzalez Galindo. 

Vera Cruz—Saul Rodiles, Enrique Meza, Benito Rami¬ 
rez G., A. G. Garcia, E. Cespedes, Josafat F. Mar¬ 
quez, Alfredo ' Solares, Alberto Roman, Silvestre 
Aguilar, Angel S. Juarico, H. Jara, Victorio E. 
Gongora, M. Torres, C. L. Gracidas (alternate), 
J. de D. Palma, G. Casados, F. A. Pereyra. 

Yucatan—Enrique Recio, Miguel Alonzo Romero, 
Hector Victoria A. 

Zacatecas—Adolfo Villasenor, Julian Adame, Jairo R. 
Dyer, Samuel Castanon, A. L. Arteaga, Antonio 
Cervantes, Colonel J. Aguirre Escobar. 

Secretary—F. Lizardi, Deputy from Guanajuato. 
Secretary—E. Meade Fierro, Deputy from Coahuila. 
Secretary—Jose M. Truchuelo, Deputy from Quere¬ 
taro. 

Secretary—Antonio Ancona A., Deputy from Yu¬ 
catan. 

Sub-Secretary—Dr. J. Lopez Lira, Deputy from 
Guanajuato. 

Sub-Secretary—Juan de Dios Borquez, Deputy from 
Sonora. 

Sub-Secretary—Flavio A. Bojorquez, Deputy from 
Sonora. 

Queretaro de Arteaga, January 31, 1917. 


A pamphlet edition, covering a comparison of the 
texts of the constitutions of 1857 and 1917, with 
explanatory notes, is in preparation. 


TREND OF PROGRESS 

Among the new and important provisions of 
the Constitution as adopted at Queretaro is 
the institution of a Department of Public 
Health with jurisdiction over the entire Re¬ 
public. 

Notice has been given to all drug store 
proprietors in the city of Mexico that they 
must give the public access to their places of 
business at all hours of the night when neces¬ 
sary 

The force of workmen employed upon the 
National Theater in Mexido City has been con¬ 
siderably augmented and it is hoped to be 
able to advance the work of construction ma¬ 
terially at an early date. 

During the months of January and Feb¬ 
ruary the importation of automobiles was per¬ 
mitted into the State of Sonora free of duty 
in order to aid in the restoration of mining 
and other industries to complete activity. 

The authorities of San Luis Potosi have 
closed the establishments of a number of deal¬ 
ers who persisted in demanding prices for 
their goods that were out of proportion with 
their cost and caused hardship to the people. 

Announcement is made that the sum of 
three million dollars specie will be devoted to 
the improvement of the Port of Manzanillo, 
in order to accommodate the constantly in¬ 
creasing commerce of the west coast of the 
Republic. 

It is proposed to establish an exhibit of the 
products of Mexico at Valencia, Spain, in 


THE MEXICAN REVIEW 


order to promote commerce between the two 
countries, there being a constant demand for 
raw material of various kinds produced in the 
Republic. 

There having been a marked decrease in the 
wholesale prices of food articles of prime 
necessity in the capital city, the local authori¬ 
ties and the Chamber of Commerce have pre¬ 
pared a new scale of retail charges for the 
same which has greatly benefited consumers 
of all classes. 

A comprehensive plan is under consideration 
by the Government for the encouragement 
of the development of the resources of the 
country through the means of establishing in¬ 
dustries of various kinds throughout the Re¬ 
public under expert management. Every 
branch of industry will receive attention. 

An establishment will be opened in Mexico 
City at which soldiers will be able to obtain 
all articles of necessary consumption at much 
less than the rates demanded by dealers. These 
goods, which will be principally food supplies 
of prime necessity, will be distributed at as 
near cost as possible. 

Reports from the State of Tabasco are to 
the effect that normal conditions are being re¬ 
stored with rapidity in all branches. A com¬ 
prehensive plan for the embellishment of the 
capital city, villahermosa, is being carried out 
with good effect. Steamship service has also 
been greatly improved with good general re¬ 
sults, that being the only means of com¬ 


munication with the outside world. 

A careful study of the various uses of guay- 
ule, the wonderful desert rubber producing 
shrub, is to be made by the Biological In¬ 
stitute of Mexico City. 

The Government of the State of Hidalgo 
has directed the establishment of a new civil 
hospital in the city of Pachuca. 

Among other improvements in the port of 
Tampico two lighthouses with lanterns of high 
power are to be installed on the jetties lead¬ 
ing to the deep-water channel. 

A very active anti-alcoholic campaign is 
being carried on in Sonora by the authorities, 
and those selling intoxicating beverages in 
secret are severely punished. 

The Supreme Tribunal of Justice has been 
established in Guadalajara and has entered 
upon the performance of its duties in the 
administration of the civil law. 

A large number of the pulque shops on 
The principal streets of Mexico City have been 
closed, and it is proposed to abolish them en¬ 
tirely within a short time. 

Reports from Tampico state that the eco¬ 
nomic situation has been entirely relieved, as 
all employees are now paying their help either 
in Mexico specie or American currency. 

The Department of Public Health of the 
City of Mexico reports the existence of very 
few cases of typhus fever and that normal 
conditions in this respect have been practically 
restored. 

The authorities of Durango City have estab¬ 
lished agencies for the sale of food articles 
of prime necessity at lower than market rates. 
This has been done in many other portions 
of the Republic. 

Telegraphic money order service in national 
specie has been resumed with all portions of 
the Republic. 



15 

The Governmental agencies in Mexico City 
for the sale of food at low prices are all 
abundantly supplied with stocks to meet every 
possible demand. 

The local authorities of Mazatlan have 
commenced a comprehensive system of enbel- 
lishment of that city, including the renovation 
of plazas, planting of flower gardens and lawns 
and other attractions. 

Major E. M. Cirlos of the Constitutionalist 
army has patented a new torpedo for use in 
aeroplanes which explodes either automat¬ 
ically in the air or by percussion when strik¬ 
ing any object or the earth. 

The Department of Fomento has granted a 
concession for the draining of Lake Cuitzeo. 
in the State of Michoacan, a shallow body 
of water, thereby adding a large area to 
the arable land of that locality. 

The ancient municipal palace in Vera Cruz 
is being demolished in order to provide for 
the extension of the Plaza Constitution over 
its site, which is one of the most valuable 
pieces of real estate in the city. 

The first steamer of the new Norwegian line 
arrived at Vera Cruz on January 3 d from 
New Orleans with a full cargo of flour, lard, 
salmon and other food products. 

Active work is being prosecuted in the re¬ 
pair and construction of wharves at the port 
of Mazatlan, which are greatly needed for 
the increasing foreign commerce of that port. 

The port improvements at Progreso, Yu¬ 
catan, are being pushed with vigor, notably 
the drainage of a large area of semi-inun¬ 
dated land, thus greatly improving sanitary 
conditions. 

Heavy importations of agricultural and min¬ 
ing machinery are reported from all ports of 
entry in Northern Mexico, to meet the de¬ 
mand caused by the general resumption of 
activity in those branches. 

The game of baseball continues to increase 
in favor all over the Republic. All the news¬ 
papers devote large space to reports of the 
games, as well as to other forms of sport, 
such as football, basketball, cricket, etc. 

Governor Mireles of Coahuila is consider¬ 
ing the feasibility of re-establishing the for¬ 
mer “free zone” along the boundary of that 
State on the north for the benefit of the 
residents of that section. It is considered 
th.T this will assist in restoring and mainain- 
ing normal conditions to a marked degree. 


AGRICULTURE AND HORTICUL¬ 
TURE 

Information has been received by the Sec¬ 
retary of Foreign Relations that there is an 
extensive demand for cotton in Japan, and that 
the product of Mexico can find an outlet there 
if desired. 

The orange crop in Sonora, one of the 
chief centers of production of that fruit, 
amounted to over 250 carloads for export, 
while large quantities were consumed at home. 
The fruit of that region is of superior 
quality. 

Because of the large crop of rice harvested 
in Mexico, the former import tax of about 
1 cent per pound was restored on January 1 , 
having been temporarily suspended during the 
food shortage. 







16 

The authorities of the State of Zacatecas 
have imported a large amount of seed wheat 
of choice quality, which is being distributed 
to farmers for the purpose of improving the 
production of grain. 

Under the supervision of the Department 
of Fomento extensive experiments are to be 
made in the cultivation of guayule, the desert 
rubber plant which has been a source of great 
wealth during the past ten years. It will be 
propagated in other sections from seeds 
brought from its native habitat. 

Under the Department of Fomento the cul¬ 
ture of silkworms is to be introduced and 
an experiment station has been established 
in the suburbs of the capital city for that 
purpose. It is believed this can become an 
important adjunct of the nation’s productive 
resources, as all conditions, especially those 
of labor supply, are favorable. 

Certain fertile lands made available by the 
drainage of the shores of Lake San Cristobal, 
in the Valley of Mexico, have been divided 
into tracts of two and one-half acres each, 
which are sold to small cultivators at the 
rate of $100 national specie per lot, ten years’ 
time being allowed for payment. Only one 
lot is sold to each purchaser, and as the soil is 
very productive and crops may be raised con¬ 
tinuously a single tract will support an ordi¬ 
nary family. 


LAND NOTES 

Under the authority of the National Agra¬ 
rian Commission steps are being taken to 
utilize the waters of Lake Chapala, in the 
state of Jalisco, for irrigation in that and the 
adjoining state of Michoacan. 


THE MEXICAN REVIEW 

The Oaxaca Agrarian Commission has re¬ 
ceived numerous petitions for the establish¬ 
ment of new pueblos with suitable lands at¬ 
tached, which the petitioners wish to have al¬ 
lotted to them for cultivation. These petitions 
are all receiving favorable consideration. 

The National Agrarian Commission has 
been officially congratulated by the First Chief 
and by Secretary of Fomento Rouaix for the 
able manner in which they have conducted 
the operations of that body in the restoration 
of community lands and otherwise. 

Rapid progress is reported from the State 
of Oaxaca in the restoration of the “ejidos” 
or community lands to their rightful owners, 
for the most part Indians, who were despoiled 
of them under the Diaz regime. 

A commission has been sent to the State 
of Michoacan for the purpose of delineating 
the lands that are included in the ejidos to 
be restored to their former and rightful 
owners, and also others that are to be es¬ 
tablished for the benefit of poor people who 
have petitioned for the same. 

The ancient ejidos or community lands of 
the town of Agua Prieta, Sonora, have been 
restored and allotted to citizens who desire 
to cultivate them. They have been provided 
with irrigation facilities and crops are being 
planted with favorable prospects. 

Six pueblos in the State of Colima have 
petitioned for the restoration of their ancient 
ejidos, or community lands, and the necessary 
steps are being taken to comply with the re¬ 
quest. 

The Mexican press publishes daily numer¬ 
ous accounts of the restoration of community 
lands to their rightful owners, who were 


LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 


0 028 156 496 1 » 

despoiled ot them unaer u iaz. These restora¬ 
tions cover all portions of the Republic and 
large areas of arable and pasture land. 

General Eduardo Hay, President of the 
National Agrarian Commission, has issued a 
circular to the local agrarian commissions 
urging them to use prompt measures for the 
restoration of the community lands to all ap¬ 
plicants from whom they were illegally taken, 
as well as the establishment of new pueblos 
where they are requested. 

The Secretary of Fomento has declared 
canceled the concession granted the Sinaloa 
Land Company, a California concern, several 
years ago for the use of the waters of cer¬ 
tain streams in the state of Sinaloa for irri¬ 
gation purposes. This action was taken be¬ 
cause of failure of the company named to 
carry out the provisions of its concession. 

A careful study is being made of the con¬ 
cession granted under the Diaz administra¬ 
tion to an American company for the exploi¬ 
tation of the rich agricultural lands of the 
Yaqui river valley, in Sonora, with the purpose 
of remedying certain complaints made 
against it and fully protecting the rights of the 
people to the use of the water and lands af¬ 
fected. 


MEXICAN BUSINESS 

THE REVIEW will undertake confidential In¬ 
quiries and business commissions of all kinds in 
any portion of Mexico. It has connections of the 
highest character in that country and is in a posi¬ 
tion to obtain results promptly and satisfactorily. 
Those requiring services of that nature, with an 
assurance of such results, may address THE MEX¬ 
ICAN REVIEW, 613 Riggs Bldg., Washington, 
D C. This service will be conducted free of 
charge, except where expense is entailed in obtain¬ 
ing the Information in Mexico or the correspond¬ 
ent desires information by wire. 


To Country Editors and Farmers: 


If you want to learn all about the biggest and most successful farmer’s cooperative 
system in the world, you should study the organization of the Comision Reguladora 
del Mercado de Henequen of Yucatan. 

If you want to know the truth about binder twine, the reasons for the advance in 
prices and what interests are back of the very costly campaign that is being waged 
against the Yucatan cooperative marketing system, you should read the SISAL 
BULLETIN, published every two weeks. 

Millions of dollars are being spent by certain wealthy individuals and powerful 
corporations to regain control over the world’s supply of the fibre that is used 
exclusively, almost, in the manufacture of binder twine for the American farmers. 
The Sisal Bulletin will keep you posted on this gigantic fight. A postcard or letter 
will get your name on the permanent mailing list and you will be glad that you 
found it. It is free. 


THE SISAL BULLETIN 
Room 2835 Equitable Bldg., 120 Broadway 
New York-City 








































